Former Head of State, President Olusegun Obasanjo has said that the fight against corruption in Nigeria will have to involve committed efforts of all stakeholders and citizens to succeed.
The former president disclosed this in Abeokuta, Ogun State over the weekend while featuring on a syndicated radio programme, “Boiling Point Arena.”
Obasajo who spoke extensively about his life and public service decried the endemic nature of corruption in Nigeria which he admitted has eaten very deep into the fabric of the country’s national life.
Sponsored Ad
According to him, “Corruption is very hydra-headed and eats deep. I think it was the Sultan of Sokoto, the father of the present Sultan who said corruption is like a babariga, if you are folding it on one side, it’s falling apart on the other side.
“When you carry it on both sides, you cannot hold your hands up and as soon as you put your hands down, it’s falling apart. And that’s corruption.
“It’s not a one day affair. It’s not a one regime affair. It’s not even a two regime affair. It has to be consistent. it has to be continual. It has to be a daily affair.
Obasanjo stated that all Nigerians must take blame for the rapacious corruption that continuously threatens to capsize the country.
““Everybody is to be blamed; the churches, the mosques, schools, communities, state and federal government, the entire world and the social media that does not also help the situation,” he said.
The former leader, however, emphasized the critical need to start the fight against corruption from the top in other to get the desired result.
“A leader with bad character will buy everybody with money that plays an important role because the leader has entrenched poverty that will make the governed to fall for anything.
“Those who are collecting money from bad leaders to perpetrate corruption are only mortgaging their future and future of their children. We have to go back to the beginning when communities express worries about the source of sudden wealth among the people. If the source of the wealth of an individual is in doubt, nobody cares to look in the direction of the person because he cannot be trusted.”
He reiterated the need for Nigerians to note that the fight against corruption must also take cog nuisance of the fact that quality people with credible antecedents must be recruited or appointed in leadership positions as a way of creating the type of leadership that can move the country forward. He said that professional politicians are the biggest problem of Nigeria because they are permanently guided by their own selfish interest and survival while that of the society comes like in their minds and actions.
BOILING POINT ARENA is a monthly programme is broadcast live on three radio stations, Sweet 107.1FM, 103.7 Eagle FM in Abeokuta and WASH 94.9FM, Lagos. The show was hosted by Dr Ayo Arowojolu.