The federal government will introduce a fresh approach to tackle corruption which remains a source of insecurity to the nation, Nuhu Ribadu, former chairman of the Economic and Financial Crime Commission, said yesterday in Ilishan Ijebu, Ogun State.

Mr. Ribadu, who was attending his first public appearance after returning from an 18-month exile last Thursday, made this call during the 8th Convocation Ceremony of Babcock University in Ogun state where he was conferred with an honorary Doctor of Laws degree.

“There is merit in the argument that new times call for new strategies and that a sustainable anti-corruption programme in Nigeria must wear a new look,” he said. “In the reality of our nation today, an anti-corruption programme must get an elevation to be located at the very core of national security imperative.”

Mr. Ribadu said all the resources deployed at building a virile nation will come to nought if “we do not put all our development efforts in the context of a new economic management model that correctly annotates corruption as most crippling factor in our development effort.”

Recounting his experience during the 18 months he was in exile, Mr. Ribadu said it provided him an opportunity to reflect on what he had done in the five year he was a member of the country’s economic management team.

“Such modest anti-corruption efforts as we saw in the very recent past produced result, created fundamental change and offer hope of national restoration,” he said.

Mr. Ribadu also said despite the “pains and discomfort” which his exile engendered, he draws solace in the fact that his four years of anti-corruption campaign has been validated. “If we had the opportunity to do it again today, it might be worth repeating,” he said.

Educational values

Mr. Ribadu also highlighted the core values of the university, which is to build people for leadership, transform lives and impact society for positive change.

According to him, these core values are imperative and “we must continue to seek to transform our country towards a just, fair, equitable, peaceful and truly free society.”

He also advocated that the country must move from the present practice where more than N1.1 trillion was spent on education in the last five years, with little result, to the practice where education is brought to the “doorsteps of citizens” just like India and china have done. As a gesture of honour, Mr. Ribadu was also called upon to conduct the foundation stone laying ceremony of the Pastor Laz Otti Memorial Virtual Library at the institution.

The former anti-corruption czar expressed his gratitude to the school management for deeming him fit of such honour.

“You can truly understand how humbled and appreciative my family and I are by the kind invitation to join the ranks of the honoured,” he said.

Mr. Ribadu was on May 25, restored as a retired Assistant Inspector General (AIG) by the Police Service Commission after he was stripped of his promotion from an Assistant Commissioner of Police to AIG and subsequently sacked from the Nigerian Police Force for alleged indiscipline, insubordination and absence from duty in December 2008.

He later went into exile after several attempts on his live. He has been a visiting fellow at the Center for Global Development, Washington DC

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