Former
President of Nigeria, Chief Olusegun Obasanjo, has told President
Muhammadu Buhari to start his anti-corruption fight with himself, the
vice president, the Senate President and the Speaker of the House of
Representatives before doing same to other Nigerians.
Olusegun
Obasanjo further described corruption as a ‘hydra-headed monster’ that
must not be allowed to live.He added that the fight against corruption
must begin from the top.
Chief
Olusegun Obasanjo disclosed this at the Obafemi Awolowo University,
Ile Ife, Osun State, on Friday, during the institution’s Staff Club’s
interactive programme tagged, “Seventh Roundtable with Chief Olusegun
Obasanjo, Reflections of an Elder Statesman.”
“The
president promised he will fight corruption. And there is no doubt that
he has shown that he is willing to fight corruption. Corruption is a
hydra-headed monster”.
“I believe very much that fighting corruption just has to start from the top. That is, from the president, the vice president, the senate president, the speaker of the House, the Chief Justice of Nigeria (CJN).”
“I believe very much that fighting corruption just has to start from the top. That is, from the president, the vice president, the senate president, the speaker of the House, the Chief Justice of Nigeria (CJN).”
In
a sharp response, one of the participants, who was later joined by
others, asked him to include himself and other former presidents in the
list of those to be tried for graft.
In his reaction, he said: “Did
I hear somebody say and you? Oh, you mean and former presidents? Former
presidents have either done their bit when they were in office or they
did not”.
“The
instruments we are using today (to fight corruption) were all fashioned
out by me when I was in office. We did not have anything like the
instruments (ICPC, EFCC) before. Not only did I bring up these
instruments, I also looked for the right people who could make the
instruments work”.
“Nuhu
Ribadu was in charge of the EFCC and then, the fear of Ribadu was the
beginning of wisdom. For ICPC, I specially head-hunted somebody like
Justice Mustapha Akanbi to run it.”
Commenting on Nobel Laureate, Professor Wole Soyinka, Obasanjo said, “Soyinka
is slippery and he is no man to be trusted. I will trust Wole Soyinka
as an “aparo hunter” (partridge hunter) than trusting him as a political
analyst. I have no issues with him.”
When
asked to explain why he refused to release some money for the National
Assembly when he was the president of the country, he stated that “you
don’t know so many things that transpired during my administration. So
many things were not resolved, so don’t attack my intelligence and
personality.
