President Bola Tinubu is presiding over the 19th meeting of the Federal Executive Council at the council chambers of the State House, Abuja.
Wednesday’s meeting is his first since returning from a two-week vacation in the United Kingdom and France.
The last session was held on September 23, 2024.
Vice President Kashim Shettima is not attending the meeting as he is representing Nigeria at the Commonwealth Heads of Government Meeting in Samoa.
Meanwhile, Ministers of Finance, Mr. Wale Edun, and Power, Mr. Adebayo Adelabu, are also absent as they are currently attending the IMF and World Bank meetings in Washington, D.C., USA.
The Ministers of Foreign Affairs, Yusuf Tuggar; Aviation and Aerospace Development, Festus Keyamo; Environment, Balarabe Lawal; and the Federal Capital Territory, Nyesom Wike, are also away for other national assignments.
Before the meeting kicked off, Tinubu swore in Dr Abdullahi Bello as the new Chairman of the Code of Conduct Bureau.
Bello was appointed Chairman of the Code of Conduct Bureau on March 28, 2024.
He succeeded Prof Isah Mohammed, whom former President Muhammadu Buhari appointed in November 2018.
After the ceremony, Bello emphasised the importance of integrity and accountability among public servants and promised to uphold the Bureau’s mandate.
He argued that Nigeria has the necessary systems and institutions to combat corruption and he intends to leverage technology to ensure integrity and prevent corruption.
Bello told journalists, “I want to assure Mr. President and the people of Nigeria that 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.”
He promised to deliver on integrity and accountability saying “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.”
He also argued that while corruption is obtainable in any society, the systems created to minimise it differentiates one society from another.
“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 things 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”, Bello said.
The CCB was established in 1979 when the Constitution provided a list of Codes of Conduct for public officers. However, it only got its legal mandate in 1989 under the Babangida regime.
The Code of Conduct Bureau and Tribunal Act, Chapter 58 LFN 1990 mandates the Bureau to among other things, receive asset declarations by public officers, examine the declaration, retain custody of such declarations, and make them available for inspection by any citizen of Nigeria on such terms and conditions as the National Assembly may prescribe.
(PUNCH)