YEMI OSINBAJO

Many of the ethnic and other parochial tensions that have tended to create insecurity and outright conflict, time and time again, are largely as a result of failure to deliberately undertake nation-building efforts.

As you fight corruption, it fights back.

I understand the law of sowing and reaping. It is a spiritual law that has tremendous physical implications. Every time that we delay or frustrate what we can do today, leaving it till tomorrow, we hold back the future. We, too, must reap what we have sown by experiencing delays.

The fundamental for the sustainable growth of Nigeria is not in the hydro-carbon industry but in agriculture.

Nigeria is still grappling with the negative consequences of the use of opacity by senior members of government and their cronies between 1993 and 1998, awarding themselves juicy contracts in the extractive industry.

Our country has the potential not just to be the giant of Africa but a major economic giant in the world.

In stabilizing the macroeconomic environment, we have focused on aligning fiscal with monetary policy and nudging the central bank toward the objective of more market-determined exchange rates.

Many would say the reason why they steal is because they want to have an arsenal for future political exploits. It is a lie. It is greed. In any case, even if you want to do that, you have no right to do it.

It doesn't matter where one starts from; it doesn't matter at all where you start from. It is how committed you are, how determined you are, and how hardworking you are that will ultimately make the difference.

We in Nigeria have seen just how difficult it is to get back stolen assets from the international financial system, such as banks that ought not have received those funds in the first place if even the most routine questions were asked.

Hate speech is a specie of terrorism.

There is no wisdom of man that can change men or change nations; it is the power and wisdom of God that can.

Tracing, freezing, and return of stolen assets has proved in many cases to be exceptionally difficult for most African countries.

Any nation that does not emphasize integrity will always fail.

If there is one person in Nigeria that believes that petroleum prices should not go up by one naira, it is President Buhari.

No matter how much you pray or fast, our country cannot grow without some of us deciding to do the hard work that makes nations work.

The most important thing is that we are on the right path, and we will not deviate from it, even in the face of strong temptation to choose temporary gains over long-term benefits.

You don't have to cheat or steal to be successful in life, but you must be ready to convert your challenges to opportunity.

We in Africa must prepare our economies in that direction that attracts such huge and qualitative investments. It is for us to push, and we must push.

The most important thing for Africa is that whoever wants to invest in our countries should start in manufacturing.

We don't have all the time in the world with oil. We have to use oil while it makes sense to do so.

As we move to diversify our economy, we are particularly aware that we need oil to get out of oil.

If the church says you are not allowed to steal, and we will ostracize you in our midst if you did, if what a man has does not measure up to what he has, if we found that a man has more money than he should have, if a man is earning a salary of a civil servant or a public servant and he has houses everywhere, we have to hold him to account.

We all know that Nigerian jollof rice is the best anywhere. We beat the Ghanaians and Senegalese hands down.

If people are stealing the resources of this nation, if people are taking bribes - if judges or persons in authority, whether they are judges or whoever they may be in government, ministers, whoever, if they are taking bribes - it attacks the fundament of our existence as a society.