Obasanjo said this
while delivering a public lecture to mark the 14th anniversary of the Dorcas
Oke Hope Alive Initiative at the University College Hospital (UCH), Ibadan, Oyo
state. Speaking on the theme,
“Corruption and the Challenges of the African Child,” the former Nigerian
leader said, “One of the reasons that members of the extremist group – Boko
Haram, gave for their insurrection is that they became disillusioned when they
saw how corrupt that Western-educated leaders were.
“According to
them, if those who occupied government offices by their Western education would
corruptly enrich themselves and deprive others of the basic things of life,
then that education is ‘haram’ which means forbidden. “I am told that when
Mohammed Yusuf, the original leader of Boko Haram and his early followers first
started, they all gathered and tore their certificates because they said a
certificate, which could not fetch them a source of livelihood is useless to them.
Similarly, they saw Western education as corrupting the individuals.
“We may not agree
with their position, but the disappointment and disillusionment of citizens
over the inadequacy or poor performance of their leaders is real. Adding rising
corruption to other inadequacies in leadership and we will see the instability
and insecurity which we have witnessed in the North East in recent years.” Although Obasanjo admitted that Africa’s most
populous country is still confronted with challenges ranging from massive
unemployment, agitations, crime among others being carried out by the youthful
population, he, however, maintained that such would continue unless the issue
of corruption was seriously dealt with.
He added, “There
is, therefore, a direct correlation between corruption and youth; youth healthy
development, growth and progress. The manifestation of corruption in various
forms, such as instability, unemployment and our mentality will continue to
plague our nation unless urgent steps are taken to fight corruption. “No society in the world can claim to have
completely eradicated corruption, but many countries have successfully reduced
corruption to its barest minimum. Many countries have not made corruption a way
of life. There are some examples of countries from Asia and Africa, we can
emulate if we are serious about the fight against corruption as we should be.”
The former First
citizen further lamented the alleged politicisation of the anti-graft bodies:
The Economic and Financial Crimes Commission and the Independent Corrupt
Practices and other related offences Commission. “But once we left office, they
(EFCC and ICPC) became very politicised and weakened to the point that they
were unable to discharge their duties. In fact, one of the governors, who had
been labelled and gone to jail for corruption, was to look for replacement for
Nuhu Ribadu (the pioneering chairman of EFCC), and you know the type of
replacement he would get.
“There is need to support and strengthen these institutions,
especially in the area of prosecution. The law enforcement agencies or the
government alone cannot fight corruption. They must be supported by a judiciary
that is upright and transparent. “It is very demoralising to law enforcement
officers when they painstakingly investigate a case and the culprit finds his
way around the judiciary to escape. We cannot continue to celebrate criminals,
who enrich themselves from our commonwealth, and think that corruption will
disappear.”
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