BEVERLY HILLS, March 01, (THEWILL) – The Acting President, Prof. Yemi Osinbajo on Tuesday observed that the high premium placed on wealth in the country is responsible for the prevalence of so much corruption among Nigeria’s political, religious and private sector elite.
Speaking while inaugurating the Private Sector Advisory Group, PSAG, for the Sustainable Development Goals, SDGs, at the Presidential Villa in Abuja, he stated that the nation’s elite had decided to view wealth as a measure of worth, hence the large scale corruption in the system.
Osinbajo pointed out that some countries were doing better than others who attach importance to wealth because such nations decided that the value of human beings was in their contribution to the society.
His words, “We have decided as an elite in this country that wealth is a measure of worth. It is a decision we made consciously or unconsciously. The political elite have decided that wealth is a measure of worth and that is why you find so much corruption among the political elite. Even the religious elite believe that it is a blessing of God.
“There are some societies that have decided that the value of human beings is in their contributions to the society. Those societies, of course, have done better than those who have decided that wealth, no matter how it was obtained, is a measure of worth.
“I think it is important if our elite decide that dealing with poverty is worth the while and that it will measure whether or not we are serious about our society.”
The Acting President said there was enormous responsibility placed upon the elite to do something about the millions of the extremely poor in their midst, stressing that the responsibility should not be taken lightly since that was how they would be eventually measured.
“At the end of our lives, the question that will be asked is, what is the impact that we make on people’s lives? Nobody will be measured by how much money we made or the positions we held.
“A lot of our people in this country hang their hopes on us. They look up to us and believe we can do it and despite all the failures and the false starts, our people especially the poor and the vulnerable still believe that these elite will and can deliver.
“Let us therefore take this as a personal responsibility to our people to do something profound that will make a huge difference in the lives of our people,” he said.
In her remarks, the Senior Special Assistant to the President on SDGs, Mrs. Adejoke Orelope-Adefulire, described the inauguration of the PSAG as a landmark event, saying Nigeria was the first United Nation member-state to do so.
