Posted by From Kunle Aderinokun in Abuja with agency report on
President Olusegun Oba-sanjo yesterday said advance fee fraudsters aka 419 once attempted to defraud him. He, however, did not disclose whether or not he fell for it.
President Olusegun Oba-sanjo yesterday said advance fee fraudsters aka 419 once attempted to defraud him. He, however, did not disclose whether or not he fell for it.
Also yesterday in Abuja, Obasanjo said Nigeria is still a haven of fake drugs despite the efforts of his administration to stop the activities of fake drugs syndicate.
At a meeting with Spanish business community in Madrid, Spain Obasanjo said that the fraudsters are no respecter of status and advised Spanish businessmen willing to do business with Nigerians to crosscheck any dealings with the Nigerian embassy.
"We have a number of Nigerians who are engaged in 419, they even tried it on me. Can you imagine", Obasanjo told his audience.
He said that his fight against corruption would go on until the menace was reduced to the barest minimum.
Obasanjo said he was "on a total war against corruption in all its forms and manifestations".
He urged the Spanish businessmen to look and perceive Nigeria in new light and "put aside all the stereotypes, misinformation, prejudice and wrong data bandied about Nigeria".
Obasanjo said although the country had its share of its problems on corruption the government was doing something about it, "adding, "and we are succeeding".
He said that Nigeria was currently undergoing reforms in all its sectors and assured that the reforms would endure beyond 2007.
"We have no fear whatsoever that 2007 and beyond would be peaceful, it will be a period of consolidation and sustained growth," he said.
"You can thus be assured of increased certainty or predictability in our system and economic relation,'' he said. He said that while Spain was the preferred tourism destination for the Mediterranean, Nigeria, as the gateway of ECOWAS, should be the destination for tropical tourism.
He said that the investment meeting, the first of its kind in more than two decades, was a useful forum for both countries and hoped that a lot of benefit would accrue.
Also in Abuja yesterday Obasanjo said Nigeria has become the haven of fake and expired drugs in addition to all other forms of materials from abroad. The president who spoke while being conferred with the grand patron of the Institute of Quality Assurance of Nigeria (IQAN) said this scenario necessitated the Federal Government's fight against the menace.
Represented by the Minister of State for Finance, Mrs. Nenadi Usman, Obasanjo recalled that successive governments had neglected the observance of quality assurance. He added that the people too have not realized the consequences of its non-observance.
Noting that quality assurance has been lacking in fake and adulterated food and drugs to fake spare parts, poor building and construction materials, he pointed out that serious visible negative consequence has forced the government to give quality assurance prominence in the country's industrial and commercial policy.
This, according to him, resulted in the several deaths and deformities arising from fake drugs and foods and collapse of buildings due to non-observance of quality control measures.
Others, he added, were fire disasters and loss of lives arising from poor quality control in the production of electronic and electrical appliances as well as vehicular accidents caused by the non-observance of quality assurance measures in their maintenance. The president said the 'absence of quality assurance in what we do is that many do not take it seriously until we experience the disastrous consequence."
Given this scenario, he advised that 'we should be awakened to our responsibilities and take pre-emptive measures to avert such occurrence adding that we are all living witnesses to the alarming dimension which fake and adulterated drugs had assumed in the country before the present administration."
The President noted that, apart from local faking and adulteration, Nigeria has suddenly become the haven of fake and expired drugs and other materials from all over the world resulting in consequential loss of precious lives and valuable foreign exchange.
Noting that some measure of success had been achieved in the area of fake drugs, he however, said that it was not yet time for celebration as there was still much to do.