Corruption, worst rights violation ever —Buhari

President Muhammadu Buhari
 President Muhammadu Buhari on Sunday described corruption
as the greatest human rights violation ever.
Justifying the reason why his administration is waging a large
scale war against graft, Buhari said the effects of corruption
were manifest in suffering, deprivation and death that innocent
people were being exposed to.
He therefore urged Nigerian lawyers to support his
administration to win the war against corruption.
According to a statement issued by his Senior Special Assistant
on Media and Publicity, Mallam Garba Shehu, the President
spoke at the opening of the 55th Annual General Conference of
the Nigerian Bar Association in Abuja.
He called on Nigerian lawyers to support his administration’s
war against corruption and help the country return to the path of
rectitude by making Nigerian courts functional and effective
again.
Noting that lawyers are often in the vanguard of the defence of
human rights, Buhari urged them to view corruption too as a
gross violation of human rights.
He said, “For the masses of our people, the millions still
wallowing in want and diseases, corruption is a major reason
why they cannot go to school; why they cannot be gainfully
employed; and why there are few doctors, nurses and drugs in
their hospitals and health centres.
“It is the reason why pensioners are not paid and potable water
is scarce.
“In effect, corruption diverts public resources meant for millions
of people into the private pockets of a greedy few, thereby
causing a lot of suffering, deprivation and death.
“In my view, there can be no greater violation of human rights.
“Viewed in this way, I think we can all fully appreciate the
gravity of this oppressive and destructive evil. This should rouse
us to fight it with the same zeal and doggedness as we deploy in
the defence of fundamental rights.”
The President also told the lawyers not to sacrifice the integrity
of the country’s legal system in a bid to cover the misdeeds of
their clients, no matter how lucrative the brief may be.
He said he was convinced that law, lawmakers, lawyers, law
courts and law enforcement agencies had responsibilities to
discharge, if the change Nigerians earnestly seek would ever
materialise.
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