Ex-president of Nigeria, Chief Olusegun Obasanjo, has advised
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 extending same to other Nigerians.
The
former President who described corruption as a ‘hydra-headed monster’
that must not be allowed to live, said the fight against the monster
must begin from the top.
He was a special guest 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.”
Obasanjo, responding to a question from a student on his view about
the administration of President Muhammadu Buhari, however, said the
president had left no one in doubt that he was willing to battle
corruption.
“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).”
As the
former President mentioned the Chief Justice of the Nation, 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,” he said.
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.”http://dailypost.ng/2016/02/08/begin-anti-graft-war-with-yourself-obasanjo-charges-buhari/
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