Vice President Yemi Osinbajo has declared that he places high value on the virtues of integrity, transparency and social justice despite records of pervasive corruption and social injustice under President Muhammadu Buhari’s regime.

Although Mr Osinbajo claimed he values social justice and detests corruption, the critics of the current administration have, over time, argued that he could not be exempted from Mr Buhari’s failures.

His principal had expressed his commitment to eliminating corruption in public service, but his regime has been rated low on anti-corruption. Reports by various local and international organisations had shown “massive” corruption at various levels of government, including the security and anti-graft agencies.

However, while interacting with a group of Harvard Business School students who visited him at the Presidential Villa, the vice president insisted that he is a “product” of integrity, transparency and social justice.

“I came into government with values about what I think is important, especially around transparency, social justice and justice, among others,” Mr Osinbajo said. “You are almost always a product of the values you believe in.”

Mr Osinbajo, who lost his presidential bid at the APC primary elections, said the virtues of integrity, transparency and social justice were also exhorted in the different faiths and religions in the country.

“Just looking at these values, there is a great deal of unanimity about what is the right thing to do,” he said.

“The question is whether or not you will do those things, or whether you are motivated enough to do them, or whether you are compelled to do them.

“Spirituality helps in that sense to help you to decide what to do and what not to do; especially where institutions are not strong enough to restrain people from behaving in a particular way or not,” he said.

In its Country Reports on Human Rights Practices for 2021, the United States noted that “massive, widespread, and pervasive corruption affected all levels of government, including the judiciary and security services.”

Also, Transparency International, in its Corruption Perceptions Index 2021 released earlier this year, said Nigeria, under the Buhari regime, “scored 24 out of 100 points in the #CPI2021, which is one point less compared to the score of 2020.” 

Several reports have also highlighted that the regime is deeply rooted in social injustice, a wide range of human rights abuses, and its continued failure to obey the FOI Act 2011, which posits that media and civic groups are provided with access to documents.

(NAN)