Vice President Yemi Osinbajo has identified weak institutions as enablers of corruption and other social ills in Nigeria. This came as he stressed the need for the international community to appreciate the size of the country in order to understand those challenges facing her.
Osinbajo said this at the weekend during an interaction with a group of Harvard Business School students who visited him at the Presidential Villa, Abuja. Numbering about a dozen, the students currently on an African excursion asked questions about leadership, faith, spirituality, government policies in education, health, economy, and national image, amongst others.
In his responses, Osinbajo articulated his personal commitment to the virtues of integrity, transparency and social justice which are also virtues exhorted in the different faiths and religions in the country.
He said: “For me, spirituality connotes values. I came into government with values about what I think is important especially around transparency, social justice and justice, among others. You are almost always a product of the values you believe in.
“Fortunately, a lot of these values cut across the different faiths, they are not necessarily restricted to a religion or one faith.
“In societies that are more developed institutionally, you don’t need to be told that you shouldn’t do certain things because you could end up in jail if you do and there is a good likelihood that you could be detected and the process will go through and you will be punished. “I speak about corruption and all that.
But where the institutions are weak, some people have reasons for not doing the right thing.