The setback suffered by the Federal Government in the prosecution of anti-corruption cases at the high court is temporary, Minister of Information, Culture & Toursim Lai Muhammed said yesterday.
He urged Nigerians not to be discouraged by the negative outcome of corruption cases, promising that the President Muhammadu Buhari-led administration will carry on with the anti-graft war.
The fight, he said, should not been seen as Buhari’s but Nigeria’s push for socio-economic freedom.
In a statement in Abuja yesterday, Mohammed said the government had appealed against all the negative judicial decisions, and will vigorously canvass its case at the Court of Appeal.
Besides, the minister disclosed that the government was reviewing the various rulings “to determine whether there were errors on our part or whether the government is the victim of mischief”.
According to him, no setback will discourage the government from pushing the anti-graft battle.
He said: “The war against corruption is going to be long, tough and arduous, but this administration is equipped, physically, mentally and intellectually, for the long haul.
“We must win this war because the law is on our side, the people are on our side and God is on our side. This is only the beginning. So, any setback will not deter or discourage us.”
Mohammed urged Nigerians to continue to identify with what he described as a “titanic struggle”, noting: “This is not Buhari’s war. It is Nigeria’s war of liberation from poverty, misery, sickness and wretchedness.”
Nigeria, Mohammed said, cannot afford unnecessary technicalities as far as the war against corruption is concerned, especially because of the adverse and devastating consequences of corruption on the polity.
He said: “‘Nigerians will appreciate more the grave and dire consequences of corruption when they consider that the $9.2 million found in a village house in Southern Kaduna can finance the construction of one health centre in each of the 774 local governments in Nigeria and fund them for one year.
“Against this background, one can therefore imagine what Nigeria could have achieved with the $20 billion that was estimated to have been looted in the last three years of the immediate past administration, either in the areas of job creation or infrastructural development.
“The government is therefore more determined than ever to recover as much of this plundered funds as possible and use them to put our youths back to work, fix our roads and other infrastructure, equip our hospitals and universities and invest in electricity in order to bring our industries back to life and bring back some level of comfort to our homes and offices.”