President Bola Tinubu resumed official duties by presiding over the 19th Federal Executive Council (FEC) meeting at the State House in Abuja.
This marked his first FEC meeting after returning from a two-week vacation in the United Kingdom and France. The last FEC session took place on September 23, 2024.
However, Vice President Kashim Shettima was notably absent from the meeting as he is representing Nigeria at the Commonwealth Heads of Government Meeting (CHOGM) in Samoa.
Other key ministers, such as Finance Minister Wale Edun and Power Minister Adebayo Adelabu, were also not present, as they are currently attending the annual meetings of the International Monetary Fund (IMF) and the World Bank in Washington, D.C.
Additionally, some other ministers were missing due to national assignments. These included the Minister of Foreign Affairs, Yusuf Tuggar; Minister of Aviation and Aerospace Development, Festus Keyamo; Minister of Environment, Balarabe Lawal; and Minister of the Federal Capital Territory, Nyesom Wike.
Before the FEC meeting commenced, President Tinubu administered the oath of office to Dr. Abdullahi Bello, who was appointed as the new Chairman of the Code of Conduct Bureau (CCB).
Bello was appointed to this role on March 28, 2024, succeeding Prof. Isah Mohammed, who had served in the position since 2018 under former President Muhammadu Buhari.
After his swearing-in ceremony, Dr. Bello expressed his commitment to ensuring integrity and accountability among public servants. He highlighted the importance of fighting corruption in Nigeria, assuring the public that he plans to use modern technology to help achieve the Bureau’s goals.
Bello told journalists, “I want to assure Mr. President and the people of Nigeria that I will do my best to make sure that I deal with this huge task that is ahead of me.
“Like you mentioned, Code of Conduct Bureau is the foremost anti-corruption agency, the first anti-corruption agency in Nigeria and I intend to deliver on the mandates of the Bureau.
“It’s all about making sure that people, public servants, behave with integrity, they avoid corruption, no conflict of interests.”
He promised to deliver on integrity and accountability saying “I promise Nigerians that, Insha Allah, I’m going to do my best to make sure that I deliver on the mandate of the Bureau.”
“It doesn’t matter whether you are in the UK, whether in the US, everybody has a tendency to be corrupt. One of the most important things is the systems that we have in place to check it.
“So if we have the systems in Nigeria, we are going to deal with this problem.
“So I assure you that we have the systems, we have the institutions, we only need to deliver on the mandate that is given to us, and then everything will be all right”, Bello said.
