By Damilare Adeleye
President Bola Tinubu has sworn in Dr Abdullahi Usman Bello as new Chairman of the Code of Conduct Bureau (CCB).
The swearing-in ceremony was done on Wednesday before the commencement of the Federal Executive Council, FEC, meeting presided over by the President at the Council Chamber, Presidential Villa, Abuja.
Speaking to State House correspondents after his swearing-in, the new CCB Chairman, outlined his commitment to addressing corruption through the commission.
He emphasized the importance of integrity and accountability among public servants and promised to uphold the Bureau’s mandate.
He expressed the belief that while corruption is a global issue, effective systems can mitigate it, assuring that Nigeria has the necessary systems and institutions to combat corruption and he intends to focus on delivering the Bureau’s mandate to ensure integrity and prevent corruption.
“I want to thank Mr. President for appointing me to this position. Really happy, and I want to assure Mr. President and the people of Nigeria, I will do my best to make sure that I deal with this huge task that is ahead of me.
“Like you mentioned, the 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, avoid corruption, no conflict of interests.
“So that is the aim of it; integrity, accountability, those are the duties that I need to deliver on. 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.
“All right, you have gone around the world. Yes, you’ve seen it for from what you’ve observed in the past those who have come before you, yes, where do you think the challenge is really about conduct in this country, and what do you intend to do to fix this?”
Asked what he thinks his challenges might be, Bello said “I always say that it’s not about the individuals, everybody can be corrupt in the world. It doesn’t matter whether you are in the UK, or 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”, he said.