Start anti-corruption war with yourself - Obasanjo tells Buhari

The former president of Nigeria Olusegun Obasanjo has described corruption as a ‘hydra-headed monster’ and stressed that the fight against it must begin from the top. Therefore, he called on President Muhammadu Buhari to start his anti-graft fight with himself, the vice president, the Senate president and the speaker of the House            Representative.

According to Daily Post, the ex-president was a special guest at the Obafemi Awolowo University, Ile Ife, Osun state, on Friday, February 5.

Speaking during the institution’s Staff Club’s interactive programme titles “Seventh Roundtable with Chief Olusegun Obasanjo, Reflections of an Elder Statesman,” the former president was responding to questions from students.  When asked to express his opinion about Buhari anti-corruption campaign, Obasanjo said:

“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).”

One of the participants of the interactive programme asked Obasanjo to include himself and other former presidents in the list of those to be probed for graft.

In his reaction, Obasanjo 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.”

When asked to explain why he refused to release some money for the National Assembly when he was the president of Nigeria, Obasanjo said:

“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.”