Our Country's Destiny, Businesses We Run & Individual Interactions Cannot Be Divorced From Integrity скачать в хорошем качестве

Our Country's Destiny, Businesses We Run & Individual Interactions Cannot Be Divorced From Integrity

SPEECH DELIVERED BY HIS EXCELLENCY, PROF. YEMI OSINBAJO, SAN, GCON, THE IMMEDIATE PAST VICE PRESIDENT OF THE FEDERAL REPUBLIC OF NIGERIA AT THE 30TH ANNIVERSARY OF THE INTEGRITY ORGANISATION AND THE CONVENTION ON BUSINESS INTEGRITY ON THE 25TH OF NOVEMBER, 2025 Protocols Let me say that it really is a pleasure to join you all today in celebrating 30 remarkable years of the Integrity Organisation and the Convention on Business Integrity, CBI. Soji Apampa and I co-founded Integrity in 1995. We were both concerned at the time about the way corruption in both the private and public sectors continually damaged our economy and eroded the government's ability to render even the most basic services to people. Soji was particularly concerned about how private sector corruption damaged the reputation of Nigerian businesses and the very chilling effect that it had on investor confidence. We initially considered joining Transparency International at the time. Transparency International had been formed about two years before, but we found that it was better for us to work together rather than to join them because they were focused on coalition building against corruption, but we wanted to address individual cases of corruption in both the public and private sectors. We started at the time by publishing a single sheet, a pamphlet titled "Scrutiny", where we detailed acts of official corruption, and we had a cartoon series titled "Integrity Pays." The cartoon series was simply to highlight the economic and social benefits of ethical conduct and integrity, both in private and public life. Nduka Obaigbena, the founder of This Day, then a relatively new newspaper, helped us to circulate scrutiny every week by inserting it in the Thursday edition of the newspaper. So we were able to circulate our pamphlet through This Day's newspaper. Later on, we drew up the Convention on Business Integrity, a document which we hoped and which we proposed would be signed by companies that were ready to pledge to observe the highest ethical standards in their businesses. We then hoped that this would create a body of businesses recognised for their commitment to integrity and high ethical standards. At some point, we approached Dr Christopher Kolade to chair Integrity. He didn't know either of us. He had never really met either of us. But he liked the idea and then said to us that, because he really didn't know us, he said, "Well, you need to persuade two other people with whom he shared the same values and ideals". And those two people are Mr Akintola Williams, now a pleasant memory, the doyen of the accounting profession in Nigeria, and Mr Michael Omolayole, the respected businessman. He was very well respected in business management and in governance, corporate governance, and generally in corporate Nigeria. We spoke to them both, and it appears that we made a reasonably good impression. Dr Kolade then agreed to chair the organisation, and both Mr Akintola Williams and Mr Omolayole continued in their roles as mentors. We're grateful, extremely grateful, for Dr Kolade's exceptional and courageous leadership of the organisation for 15 years, as our chairperson has pointed out. But let me particularly speak of Dr Kolade's courage, because, as you know, integrity always requires some courage. The organisation was founded in the darkest days of the Abacha regime, when any form of dissent or criticism of the government was treated as an existential threat to the government. At the public launch of the Convention on Business Integrity here at this Muson Centre, the venue was surrounded by operatives of State Security, and they informed us that the event could not proceed because it could give rise to a breakdown of law and order. What we said to them, Soji and I said to them, that you have to speak to our chairman about that. ******************************************** The official YouTube Channel for Oluyemi Oluleke Osinbajo, Nigerian Lawyer and Politician who served as the Vice President of Nigeria from the 29th of May 2015 to the 29th of May 2023. Before this, he served as the Attorney-General and Commissioner for Justice in Lagos State from 1999 to 2007. With a background in law and governance, he currently chairs the Climate Action Platform for Africa and serves as a Global Advisor for the Global Energy Alliance for People and Planet. He's also the Guardian of the Timbuktoo Africa Innovation Foundation and Chair of Future Perspectives. Follow Prof. Osinbajo online: Website: www.yemiosinbajo.ng Facebook: Professor Yemi Osinbajo Twitter/X: @ProfOsinbajo Instagram: @ProfOsinbajo LinkedIn: @Prof. Yemi Osinbajo