Fashola: I would focus on law and order, not corruption

Babatunde Fashola, minister of power, works and housing, says he sees corruption as a symptom of lack of law and order, adding that he would focus on these rather than corruption.

Speaking in an interview with Stephen Sackur, on BBC’s Hardtalk, Fashola said no country in the world is corruption-free, emphasising that lack of law enforcement makes the difference.

“Well, I think that the clear evidence is that we have done better in the way that we enforce law and order,” Fashola said.

“I think corruption is the symptom of the larger problem of non-compliance and therefore, I will focus on law and order and in such a way that compliance becomes a way of life; people who fail to comply, really, are those who then scandalise us.

“For me there is no corruption-free country; it is a clash between law and order and enforcement and the lack of it and the more of that we see in our procurement process, in our way of life, in how open we are, how transparent we are in doing things, the better of we would be.”

Fashola, who is constantly being referred to as Nigeria’s “super minister”, said the judiciary is working, contrary to President Muhammadu Buhari’s stance a few days that the judiciary has not lived up expectations.

“I don’t think that the judiciary isn’t doing its work; I think that all of us understand that there must be a prosecution process, and you can’t break the law to enforce the law,” he said.

“People’s rights, constitutionally guaranteed rights, must be respected in this, and that is not a local problem, it is also an international problem dimensioned to this.

“All of the proceeds of crime abroad are also tied up in one form of judicial process, where prosecutors actually get rewarded for what they seize.”

Fashola spoke on the state of the economy and his plans to explore coal, solar, gas and hydropower as means of generating electricity in Nigeria.