 The Presidential Advisory Committee against Corruption, Pakar, certainly deserves a commendation, not just for their sterling and innovative contribution that they provide against corruption, but for regularly setting their agenda for important conversations on the subject. This meeting, which is called to discuss a collaborative approach to eradicating the evils of corruption is notably one subject. For years corruption has been by far Nigeria's most devastating problem. A recent Price Waterhouse Coopers study titled the impact of corruption on a Nigerian economy made the following general findings and conclusions on the effects of corruption. One that corruption has a dynamic impact, more by poorer households and smaller companies. Secondly that countries with higher corruption are associated with lower tax revenues and lower expenditures as they presented to GDP in the most important indicators of human development, namely health and education. Corruption is also associated, they say, with the erosion of talent in public institutions and therefore government's effectiveness is low there. For the same corruption usually needs the creation of unnecessary bureaucracy to enable further opportunities for rights. This means that the enforcement of contracts, of property rights, etc., are hindered and awakened by corruption. Five that corruption is associated with lower investment, higher prices and barriers to entry into small business. Six that corruption is associated with lower average standard of living, lower educational levels and greater inequality in society. The final conclusion is that Nigeria's 20-30 GDP can be up by at least 534 billion US dollars if we reduce corruption. And they say that if we reduce corruption by about 20%, we can actually have a better level of high GDP. So really it doesn't matter how much revenue a country makes or how transformative its plans are, if it allows corruption to thrive, they should ensure that the majority of people do not benefit from all of the revenues whatever it is that a country is able to produce or simply truncate the plans of relation which is why despite the highest all revenues in our history between the period 2010 to 2014, debt doubled and poverty figures also rose. This for these reasons is that President Mohammed Buhari famously warned that if we don't kill corruption, corruption will kill us. Which is why a major pillar of our government socio-economic agenda is the fight against corruption and which is why perhaps one of the first bodies to be set up in 2015 by the president was Packard. And since 2015, much has been done in this battle against corruption. But we are not even slightly delusioned into thinking that we have won the battle or that we are even close. Certainly not. We are still very far and we are still much far but we must admit that we are much farther we are much farther aware, we are much farther or much closer to finding a solution than when we first began. Our policy was to tackle anti-corruption, grand corruption, maybe about the first. That was our policy to deal with grand corruption first. By this I mean the stealing of huge public resources directly from the Treasury, usually at the behest of the highest levels of exemptive authority and the stealing of budgeted funds through various schemes. How did we go about this? The enforcement first of TSA, the presidential initiative on continuous budget and even ensuring that most civil servants are on the high-piss electronic platform which simply is a way of ensuring that there are no ghost workers by putting all public officials including those in the armed forces and police on our electronic platform on our electronic payment platform so that all of our human resources are accounted for electronically. This has greatly helped reducing the number of ghost workers and the corruption that thrives on the account of that human drug. The judiciary also moved the needle in recent times. Supreme Court in the lead development of our CASTJSE recently held that for future under section 17 of the advance field fraud another related to FECSI's Act is a civil matter. So neither requires the criminal conviction of the property owner nor his innocence. This opens the door for for future assets so that the property owner cannot explain whether or not there is an allegation of corruption. We are now poised to deal with the wider problems of systemic corruption especially where the average person interacts with government. It is that level of corruption that affects our people the most where the average person is doing some business or is seeking some favour or some discretion from government. Corruption, for example in the issuance of contracts, licenses and other government approvals there is no reason why any Nigeria should have to pay rights to law enforcement agencies or agents for obtaining private licenses or passports or to clear goods at our ports. All the relevant government agencies have shown a serious commitment to eradicating corruption at various that all of our meetings the interagency meetings. Our next level is to create the environment for collaboration between our agencies civil society and other stakeholders. But the most enduring solutions to ending corruption are those that take into account the fact that the most important weapon that corruption has is its acceptance as the norm in any society. The situation where even the natural industrial resources of society of morality and values accrues in it a situation where in particular religious portraits are silent about it an enemy that is configured in such complexity cannot be defeated by solely a law and order approach. It requires a whole new national and individual orientation a focus on attitudinal change It must involve the collaboration of government, civil society especially the leadership of our faith communities, schools and professional and other interest groups. This is why these meetings objectives are very important to deal with. Finally, let me again congratulate Pakat on their landmark achievements in the past four years. Establishing Pakat was the first major action that President Mohammed Mubarak took in the anti-corruption fact since then under the courageous and uncompromising leadership of one of the enduring figures in legal profession and civil society Professor Ishe Sage Pakat has moved from strength to strength. Professor Sage's interventions on various critical issues of governance the rule of law and corruption have definitely pointed our opinion in the morally and legally just direction. We must also congratulate Pakat on the recent selling confirmation of your former executive secretary Professor Volandje Owassoy as chairman of the ICPC as problem against corruption is one for the soul and substance of our nation. The battle must be a collective one. Corruption fights back with Benham, with Kyle and the force. It is relentless and unashamed. We who fight it must meet it with greater resolve and critical impact. We can only win by working together with the government vision. We are thanking you for listening. It is now my very special pleasure of privilege to formally declare this meeting open.