Osinbajo blames hardship confronting Nigerians on corruption

The Vice-President, Prof. Yemi Osinbajo, has attributed the hardship being faced by Nigerians to many years of unchecked corruption in public and private sectors in the country.
Osinbajo stated this on Monday while declaring open the 49th Annual National Conference of the Nigerian Association of Law Teachers (NALT) in Keffi, Nasarawa state.
The vice-president, represented by the Secretary to the Government of the Federation (SGF), Mr Babachir Lawal, said the APC-led Federal Government was doing its best to improve on the standard of living of Nigerians.
“The hardship being faced in the country was due to unchecked corruption at both public and private sectors for many years.
“Corruption, among other social evils, has affected the socio-economic development of the country negatively.
“There is the need for all hands to be on deck to fight the menace for the overall development of the country.
“I am here to declare this occasion open and the theme of this year’s conference entitled `Law and Economy’, is timely and appropriate considering the relationship between law and economy in the country.
“Law does not only regulate the acquisition of the factors of production, but also determines the legal context and basis of their interaction.
“The law controls the inter-governmental behaviour in relation to the economy.
“I want to task the association to be up and doing in order to produce qualitative lawyers so as to enhance good legal system to better the society,’’ he said.
Osinbajo charged the lawyers to adhere strictly to the ethics of their profession.
He stressed that the success of the profession was not based on accumulation of riches or material things but on qualitative services rendered by them.
The vice-president restated the present administration’s commitment to ensure administration of justice in the interest of peace and national development.
Also speaking, Gov. Tanko Al-Makura of Nasarawa state also tasked members of the association to be alive to their responsibility toward impacting positive knowledge on the younger ones, to make them future quality lawyers.
Al-Makura, who was also represented by the state Deputy Governor, Mr Silas Agara, said that the state government would continue to give topmost priority to the education sector in spite of the nation’s dwindling economy.
Sen. Abdullahi Adamu, the Chairman of the occasion, called on the association to proffer immediate and practical solutions to the nation’s economic challenges to improve on the standard of living of Nigerians.
Adamu also advised participants at the conference to deliberate and document important papers at the event so that the policy options contained in them could be studied.
He added that those papers found to be useful could be utilised to solve the economic and political problems of the country.
Earlier, Dr Abdulkarim Kana, the President of the association, said that the conference was the high point of the activities of the association every year.
“NALT has been effective in the fulfilment of some of its objectives by keeping alive the spirit of legal research and the interchange of ideas mainly during conferences and the publication of the Nigerian law journal,” he said.