Acting President Yemi Osinbajo says the nation’s elite, especially politicians and clerics, are corrupt because they have decided that wealth as a measure of worth.
The acting president said this at the Aso Rock Presidential Villa in Abuja on Tuesday while inaugurating the Private Sector Advisory Group (PSAG) for Sustainable Development Goals.
"We’ve decided, as elite in this country, that wealth is a measure of worth. It is a decision we’ve made consciously or unconsciously. The political elite have decided that wealth is a measure of worth and that is why you find so much corruption among the political elite. Even the religious elite believe that it is a blessing of God," he said
He said he had always believed that the Nigerian political, business and religious elite have a responsibility to "do something for our society which will affect it fundamentally."
Osinbajo explained that everywhere in the world, it was that elite that had always made a difference in the societies as they were the ones responsible for transformation.
He noted that many of the societies that had been truly transformed had done so because their elite decided it was necessary to do so.
"Sometimes, when you look at our situation, you think that it’s necessary to force the political and private sector elite together to do something. But the truth is that whether or not we recognise it formally, they’re doing things together whether it is for good or ill. The important thing is to recognise that we have an important role to play," he stated.
According to the acting president, in some other climes, human beings’ value is in their contributions to the society.
"Those societies, of course, have done better than those who have decided that wealth, no matter how it was obtained, is a measure of worth. I think it’s important if our elite decide that dealing with poverty is worth the while and that it’ll measure whether or not we’re serious about our society.
"There is an enormous responsibility placed upon us as elite to do something about the millions of the extremely poor in our midst. It is a responsibility that we cannot take lightly at all. This is how we are going to be measured. At the end of our lives, the question that will be asked is what is the impact that we made on people’s lives", he added.
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