Vice President, Senator Kashim Shettima, has charged the Code of Conduct Bureau (CCB) to remain apolitical and maintain strict independence in order to function with integrity, transparency, and accountability.
He also urged the Bureau to sustain its digitization process to create a system that allows public officers to declare assets and liabilities electronically from any location, eliminating the delays and inefficiencies of paper forms as well as match what obtains in foreign jurisdictions.
Senator Shettima gave the charge on Friday when he received a delegation from the CCB led by its Chairman, Dr. Abdullahi Usman Bello, at the Presidential Villa, Abuja.
The Vice President congratulated Bello and his team on their assumption of office, just as he cautioned them against being mired in any controversy.
“Remain steadfast. Be as apolitical as humanly possible and do your job as much as you can,” he charged the delegation, even as he acknowledged the CCB’s current efforts, especially in the digitization process, observing that the world is changing and the bureau has to move with the tide.
VP Shettima told the CCB chairman to insist on the path of digitization, maintaining that the bureau has a vital role to play in promoting and projecting a good image for Nigeria.
“There is no need for public officials thronging your offices trying to fill in some forms. And you can take them to task, since it has been digitized. You expect everyone to play by the rules,” the Vice President was quoted as saying in a statement issued by his spokesman, Stanley Nkwocha.
Earlier, Dr. Bello thanked President Bola Tinubu and the Vice President for bringing in a new team to head the CCB and for increasing the bureau’s budget, noting that the CCB has undergone several reforms, including the digitization of the bureau’s associated processes.
He stated that the bureau has increased verification, investigation, and prosecution, leading to several recoveries within and outside Nigeria, including in London.
The CCB boss assured that with enough empowerment and support for the bureau from the federal government, the Bureau will continue to sustain the anti-corruption fight for the betterment of the country.