Mrs Osinbajo and I never collected a penny from our supporters —Hajia Buhari

THE wife of the president, Mrs Aisha Muhammadu Buhari, on Wednesday, declared that the wife of the  vice-president, Mrs Dolapo Osinbajo and herself began their own war against corruption right from the time their spouses were campaigning for the presidency.

She stated that both of them refused to collect money or material gift from supporters and even donors in the name of campaign, adding that, up till date, she was not ready to do so in order to keep her family’s integrity.

The wife of the president was speaking at the International Conference Centre, Abuja, at the kicking off of the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC) project, Women Against Corruption (WAC), in collaboration with the Office of the Wife of the President.

According to Mrs Buhari, instead of collecting money or material gifts, she and the wife of the vice-president only asked the All Progressives Congress (APC) supporters to rather go and print the logo of the party on items and bring same in large quantities.

She stated that the kick off of WAC was a clarion call for women to team up and wage a determined and sustainable war against corruption, which she said, had hindered development in Nigeria.

While noting that women were the most affected by the effects of corrupt practices, the wife of the president submitted that, “corruption leads to serious crimes such as terrorism, kidnapping, child trafficking, drug trafficking, gun running and other crimes that directly and significantly impact on all ages and backgrounds.”

She said the struggles of women in the areas of education, healthcare services, employment were enormous, saying that they were better positioned to fight corruption.

Mrs Buhari, therefore, called on women to rise up to their God-given roles as nation builders, warning that they could not afford to fold their arms while the country was being destroyed through corruption.

“To totally erase the effect of corruption on us and our children, we must rise up to our roles as responsible mothers and nation builders. It is time for us to go back and be the builders that we are meant to be.

“Every woman is the pillar of her home, as well as in the society. We should not stand and fold our arms while our homes and lives are being destroyed by this cankerworm called corruption. I want to urge us to use the natural instinct that God gave us to care and nurture our children, care and nurture this country and bring her out of her depression,” she said.

Speaking earlier in his welcome address, the EFCC acting chairman, Ibrahim Magu, noted that every Nigerian was affected by the corruption cankerworm, adding that there was no monopoly of ideas on how to root it out of Nigeria forever.

According to him, the WAC project was a unique initiative of EFCC, which was designed to mobilize Nigerian women to become active change agents in the important national agenda with a view to reclaiming the country from the grips of corruption.

Magu stated that corruption was the reason the country had not been able to transform its rich natural and human resource endowment into prosperity, as well as the the reason for endemic and embarrassing poverty in the midst of plenty.

“We certainly cannot continue this way. It is time to break away from the past and deliver hope to future generations,” Magu declared.

We at the EFCC are convinced that the power to change the destiny of our nation lies in the hands of women,” Magu declared.