Nigeria’s president-elect, Bola Tinubu, has promised that his administration will make corruption unattractive in the judiciary.
According to a statement by Abdulaziz Abdulaziz, a media aide, Tinubu spoke in Port Harcourt, Rivers, during the commissioning of the state’s magistrate courts complex on Thursday.
The former Lagos governor was declared the winner of the presidential election by the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) on March 1 and is expected to take the oath of office on May 29.
Speaking at the commissioning, Tinubu said his administration would undertake “the changes that are necessary” to fight “corruption” in the judiciary.
“You don’t expect your judges to live in squalor, to operate in squalor and dispense justice in squalor. This is part of the changes that are necessary. We must fight corruption but we must definitely look at the other side of the coin,” Tinubu said.
“If you don’t want your judges to be corrupt, you got to pay attention to their welfare. You don’t want them to operate in hazardous conditions.”
The president-elect said lack of consumer credit which could make it easy for workers to acquire property such as houses and cars makes them susceptible to corruption.
“If you have consumer credit that will reduce the propensity for corruption. We don’t want our judges to play foul, to compromise justice. I promise we are going to review all of these in a policy think tank.”
On Wednesday, Tinubu promised that his administration would not marginalise any part of the country.
He also pledged to “leave legacy projects across the length and breadth of Nigeria”.
