Acting President Professor Yemi Osinbajo on Tuesday inaugurated the Private Sector Advisory Group (PSAG) for the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) in order to build the consensus needed for the successful implementation of the goals.
The council was inaugurated by the Acting President at the State House in Abuja.
Speaking at the inauguration, Osinbajo attributed the high level of corruption among political, religious and private sector elite to the placing of high premium on wealth in the country.
He said the elite had decided to view wealth as a measure of worth, hence the large scale corruption in the system.
“We have decided as an elite in this country that wealth is a measure of worth. It is a decision we made consciously or unconsciously. The political elite have decided that wealth is a measure of worth and that is why you find so much corruption among the political elite. Even the religious elite believe that it is a blessing of God.
“There are some societies that have decided that the value of human beings is in their contribution to the society. Those societies, of course, have done better than those who have decided that wealth, no matter how it was obtained, is a measure of worth. I think is important if our elite decide that dealing with poverty is worth the while and that it will measure whether or not we are serious about our society,” he said.
He said there was enormous responsibility placed upon the elite to do something about the millions of the extremely poor in their midst, stressing that such responsibility should not be taken lightly since that is how they would be measured at the end of their lives.
In her remarks, Senior Special Assistant to the President on SDGs, Mrs. Adejoke Orelope-Adefulire, described the inauguration of the PSAG as a landmark event, saying Nigeria was the first United Nation member state to inaugurate the council.
She said inauguration of the council was a renewed partnership between business and government at the highest levels aimed at building the consensus needed for the successful implementation of the SDGs.
