October 23, (THEWILL) – President Bola Tinubu, on Wednesday, swore in Dr Abdullahi Usman Bello as Chairman of the Code of Conduct Bureau (CCB).
The oath-taking ceremony was held at the Council Chambers of the Presidential Villa, before the commencement of the Federal Executive Council (FEC) meeting.
The CCB’s mandate cuts across ensuring that public officials comply with the code of conduct and ethical standards. It also ensures that public officials declare their assets as a means of promoting transparency while occupying office.
Speaking to State House correspondents after his swearing-in, Bello, thanked the President for his appointment .
He said, “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?
“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 alright.”
