Nigeria's Vice-President-elect, Professor Yemi
Osinbajo, on Friday said the incoming government in the country would not toy
with corruption or pamper corrupt elements in the country beginning from 29th
May when the new administration would begin.
He warned that it is going to be a new dawn, as the
government would strengthen the criminal justice system to effectively battle
corruption, piracy and other vices in the country.
He also said the government would cut down drastically
on cost of governance as it is expected to have few cabinet members.
Osinbajo, who spoke at The Platform, an event
organised by the Covenant Christian Centre in Abuja, Nigeria's capital, said
that to effectively tackle corruption, piracy and such other criminal
activities in the country, the government would strengthen the country's
justice system.
"We have always talked about zero tolerance for
corruption but it is also important that people are made to understand that
there will be consequence for corruption.
"What we have seen so far is that there is hardly
any consequence and people simply get away with it and if you get away with it
often, it sends a message to everyone, that there is no problem, and we need to
fix that whole thinking that there has to be a consequence for corrupt
practices.
Osinbajo said: "For instance, if you are a public
servant, how come you have 50 houses? You must explain.
"Somebody needs to ask you those questions and
some of the reasons people get away with that is our criminal justice system.
"Our criminal justice system needs to be fixed.
The system is slow and it almost always ensures that people who have been
charged with offences would not be tried forever and after a while people
forget that people are being tried.
"We have to fix that criminal justice system to
ensure that criminal trials are speedy and that anyone who is guilty of an
offense will be punished for it.
"We need to look at law and order. The question
of policing our society, how do we police this country? At the moment we know
that policing is ineffective.
"If the police wants to deal with the criminals,
you and I know that they are hampered from doing so, they are hampered
structurally, they are hampered by the fact that they are not as well equipped
as they ought to be, and they are not resourced as they ought to be, but the
structural problem is the major one.
"A country of this size needs some form of
community policing because criminality is always local, we need to have
policemen who understand the local language, who live in the community, who
understand the language."
He thus argued in favour or community policing.
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