Anti-corruption War Poorly Executed Says Obasanjo

Former President Olusegun Obasanjo has expressed worry over the poor handling of corruption cases involving high profile politicians in the country.
He spoke in Abuja on Tuesday when he deliv­ered the inaugural lecture of Olusegun Obasanjo Good Governance and Development Research Centre of the National Open University of Nige­ria (NOUN). Obasanjo said that the development had become a source of concern to many Nigeri­ans and the international community.

According to him, “the lack of successful prosecu­tion of high profile cor­ruption cases involving some Politically-Exposed Persons (PEPs) is giving serious course of concern both to Nigerians and the international community.”
Obasanjo said that the aim of fighting graft is to correct certain wrong do­ings and remedy the dark sides of bad governance such as poverty and un­employment.
The former President, who spoke on “Leader­ship, Governance and the Challenges of Develop­ment in Nigeria: The Way Forward,” blamed the pov­erty level in the country and other African coun­tries on bad leadership.
He said that leaders must be fully prepared be­fore seeking the mandate of their people.
“Again, let me reiter­ate that no person should go into government with empty mind and hoping to fill the mind when he is al­ready in power. He should be fired by ideas and only itching to run with them after gaining power,” he said.
On his part, NOUN’s Vice Chancellor, Prof. Abdalla Uba Adamu, said that the university decided to name the centre after Obasanjo because of the various roles he played in the fight against corrup­tion in the country, the resuscitation of NOUN, among others.
He said that the uni­versity, which currently boasts of over 300,000 active students, is deter­mined to support good governance in the coun­try and the Federal Gov­ernment’s fight against corruption through re­searches conducted by the centre.