President Bola Ahmed Tinubu has sworn in Dr Abdullahi Usman Bello as Chairman of the Code of Conduct Bureau (CCB). The brief swearing in ceremony preceded the Federal Executive Council (FEC) presided over by President Bola Ahmed Tinubu. The ongoing Council meeting has almost all members present with the exception of a few said to be out of the country for various national assignments.
Among those not attending the meeting is Vice President Kashim Shettima who is attending the Commonwealth Heads of Government Meeting (CHOGM) in Apia, Samoa.
Also not at the meeting are Ministers of Finance and Coordinating Minister of the Economy, Wale Edun; Foreign Affairs, Yusuf Tuggar; Aviation and Aerospace Development, Festus Keyamo; Power, Adebayo Adelabu; Environment, Professor Joseph Utsev and the Federal Capital Territory (FCT), Nyesom Wike.
Speaking to journalists after the swearing in, the new CCB Chairman, Bello, outlined his commitment to addressing corruption through the commission, Nigeria’s foremost anti-corruption agency.
He emphasised the importance of integrity and accountability among public servants and promised to uphold the Bureau’s mandate.
He expressed the belief that while corruption is a global issue, effective systems can mitigate it, assuring that Nigeria has the necessary systems and institutions to combat corruption and he intends to focus on delivering the Bureau’s mandate to ensure integrity and prevent corruption.
“I want to thank Mr. President for appointing me into this position. Really happy, and I want to assure Mr. President and the people of Nigeria, I will do my best to make sure that I deal with this huge task that is ahead of me.
“Like you mentioned, Code of Conduct Bureau is the foremost anti-corruption agency, the first anti-corruption agency in Nigeria and I intend to deliver on the mandates of the Bureau. It’s all about making sure that people, public servants, behave with integrity, they avoid corruption, no conflict of interests.
“So that is the aim of it; integrity, accountability, those are the duties that I need to deliver on. I promise Nigerians that Insha Allah, I’m going to do my best to make sure that I deliver on the mandate of the Bureau.
“All right, you have gone around the world. Yes, you’ve seen it from what you’ve observed in the past that those who have come before you, yes, where do you think the challenge is really about conduct in this country, and what do you intend to do to fix this?
Asked what he thinks his challenges might be, Bello said: “I always say that it’s not about the individuals, everybody can be corrupt in the world. It doesn’t matter whether you are in the UK, whether in the US, everybody has a tendency to be corrupt. One of the most important thing is the systems that we have in place to check it.
“So if we have the systems in Nigeria, we are going to deal with this problem. So I assure you that we have the systems, we have the institutions, we only need to deliver on the mandate that is given to us, and then everything will be all right.” He said.