Nigeria’s Minister of Justice and Attorney-General, Lateef Fagbemi says Rule of Law must be sustained to move the country forward.
He made the declaration during an interview with State House Correspondents soon after he was sworn in on Monday.
He added that all ministers must key into President Tinubu’s Renewed Hope Agenda for the benefit of all Nigerians.
According to Fagbemi, “Not only my ministry, every ministry, the expectation of Nigerians is that you key into the Renewed Hope Agenda of Mr President. Each ministry has a role to play.
“Coming to my ministry, we have to ensure that the rule of law. The reform agenda of Mr President keys appropriately into this area and that is the number one thing.
“Without the Rule of Law, which simply means follow the rules, follow the regulations, nothing meaningful can be done.
“It is a veritable foundation upon which meaningful development can be anchored, whether in the economy, in peace, rest of mind, food and others and to ensure that the expectations of investors are not dashed. You need to encourage them by having viable rules and regulations.”
The Justice Minister further stated that laws of the land must be enforced, to ensure lasting peace abides across the country.
“Not only that, make sure you follow, because it is not enough to make rules, it is really in the area of enforcement that we need to re-jiggle and ensure that we do the needful,” he said.
Minister of Power, Adebayo Adelabu said he will lead the way in ensuring there is transparency in all the dealings of the ministry.
“The issue of corruption is endemic and it’s not peculiar to the power sector, it’s ravaging our entire daily live, but what I’m bringing to bear is that we have to lead from the front because the body language and the language from the top matters most. If the head is rotten, the entire body is rotten.
“We’re going to live by example. The President has challenged us that we have to be transparent in whatever we do and I believe that with what I have done in the past and the kind of credibility that I believe I have, that will automatically improve how we do our job in the Power Ministry, not just from the Minister alone, down to the Permanent Secretary, the Directors, the Assistant Directors and all the staff of the Power Ministry,” he said.
Those other stakeholders that we have in all the other parastatals under the Power Ministry; we have contractors, we have consultants, and those are going to be our collaborators.
Solution
Adelabu used the opportunity to assure Nigerians that a solution would be found to the problem of low power.
“We must embrace the same value system and same culture for us to forge ahead. I believe that with time, Nigerians will be happy because that optimal solution to our power problem is very important and we must find it, Insha Allah,” the Minister added.
