President Muhammadu Buhari on Sunday said that the fight
against corruption is aimed at saving the soul of the
nation. Buhari who was represented by Vice President, Prof.
Yemi Osinbajo, made this statement at the second plenary
meeting of Catholic Bishops Conference of Nigeria (CBCN), near
Port Harcourt.

He said:

“ Our fight against corruption is not just a battle of virtue
and righteousness in our land, but it is a fight for the
soul and substance of our nation.

“ Corruption in our country is endemic and it constitutes
a parallel system,“ he said. According to the President,
corruption has made a potentially prosperous country
struggle to feed and provide jobs for its people.

“ Hundreds of thousands of infants and maternal
mortality statistics, hundreds of thousands deaths from
communicable diseases are traceable to the greed and
corruption of a few,“ he said. Buhari urged Nigerians to
think of resuscitating the nation`s economy because
two-thirds of Nigerians lived in extreme poverty.
“They must be helped, first to survive, and then, fully
participate in the economy of the nation. “Consequently,
we must create tenets for the very poor and vulnerable,
while ensuring that social spending also resurrects
investments in the economy. “We must invest
substantially in relevant education; teachers training
and vocational and entrepreneurial training,“ Buhari
said.

The President said a way out, was for all Nigerians to invest in
infrastructure and all crucial components in the medium and
long term means of diversifying the economy.

He continued by saying:

“Meanwhile, we must block all leakages and improve on
our revenue base,“ he said. On insurgency, Buhari said
Boko Haram had been weakened and lacked the strength
to occupy the North-East zone or any part of the
country.
He also said the military was using local intelligence to thwart
efforts of Boko Haram to regroup in the North-East or any part
of the country.

He said:

“On security, we are on course to militarily route Boko
Haram and make them incapable of taking over any
territory. “Suicide bombings on some parts of the North-
East are desperate acts of terrorists to create a sense
that they are still in play.

“But, with vigilance and local intelligence, we will make
these cowardly acts practically impossible,“ he
said. Earlier, the President of CBCN, Most Rev. Ignatius
Kaigama, said that the new administration in the country
would recover the country`s wasted opportunities.
Kaigama, who is the Archbishop of Jos, said the church will
continue to pray for Nigeria.

 He said:


“The tendency to promote, defend, and protect narrow
personal economic, regional and religious interests have
been responsible for our unstable national journey of
one step forward and many steps backward,“ he
said Kaigama expressed optimism that the new
administration would achieve positive change and
recover wasted opportunities.

Vanguard