Corruption in the country is at Fatal Stage: Obasanjo
Olusegun Obasanjo Former President of Nigeria has said that the level of corruption
in the country has passed the threshold and has entered the fatal stage.
He Made this known in his keynote address on the topic, ‘Leadership Failure and State Capture in Nigeria,’
which was delivered at the Chinua Achebe Leadership Forum, Yale University, New Haven, in the United States of America over the weekend.
The former president emphasized that corruption has continued to rank among the most important problems affecting Nigerians.
In his statement he said: “More than N700 billion in cash bribes were paid by citizens to public officials in 2023. Most bribes are paid in the street or in a public official’s office. Private sector bribery is increasing but continues to be less prevalent than in the public sector. Corruption goes with power; therefore to hold any useful discussion of corruption, we must first locate it where it properly belongs in the ranks of the powerful.
Corruption in Nigeria has passed the alarming and entered the fatal stage; and Nigeria will die if we keep pretending that she is only slightly indisposed.
Ranked 150 out of 180 countries in the Transparency International 2022 Corruption Perceptions Index.
Nigeria’s ranking places it in the bottom 20 percent of the Comity of Nations and illustrates how systemic and embedded corruption is in the country. It is, in my opinion, and those of many, the most serious developmental challenge to the nation.”
He stood his ground that the nation will continue to sink into arnachy,chaos,conflict,insecurity,division,discord,depression,disunity,confusion,youth restiveness and underdevelopment as long as it is suppressed in corruption.
However Obasanjo gave a message of hope that all will be well with our country if only the challenges of corruption and immorality are precisely managed.
“The trouble with Nigeria is simply and squarely a failure of leadership.
The former president said while copying from a short, classic book published in 1983, called “The Trouble with Nigeria” by Chinua Achebe.