Thieves cannot give just governance, most of Nigerian Leaders should be in jail- Obasanjo
Thieves cannot give just governance, most of Nigerian Leaders should be in jail- Obasanjo
Former President Olusegun Obasanjo has called for the imprisonment of corrupt politicians, asserting that “thieves cannot ensure just governance.”
Speaking virtually at the memorial lecture for the late cleric Denis Joseph Slattery in Lagos, the 87-year-old statesman emphasised the need for “moral rectitude in governance.”
He stated that accountability is the foremost requirement for anyone in a governing position and highlighted that officials with questionable integrity cannot be trusted to make equitable decisions for the public good.
He said: “If you look clinically at the people in government today at both executive and legislative levels, some of them should be permanently behind bars for their past misdemeanour and criminal misconduct,” said Obasanjo who served as Nigeria’s head of state from 1976 to 1979 and later as its president from 1999 to 2007.
“You cannot expect thieves to give good judgement in favour of the owner of the property.”
Obasanjo also recounted his alarming encounter with corruption, noting how a government official justified criminal behavior when confronted.
“The first thing that shocked me when I went into politics was the level of corruption of election officials which was taken as normal.
“The second was the level of general and criminal misbehaviour which was taken with levity and impunity. We were at a meeting and a man lied and I confronted him, and the next thing he said is ‘It is all politics, Sir’.
“Every bad thing they do is passed on as politics which means politics has no room for morality, principles, rectitude, ethics, good character and attributes.”
Obasanjo added that Nigeria needs “transformational leaders rather than transactional leaders, truth instead of lies, honesty instead of dishonesty, integrity instead of disintegrity, hope instead of despair, production instead of deduction, inclusion instead of exclusion and marginalisation”.
The Slattery memorial lecture was hosted by the Old Boys’ Association of St. Finbarr’s College at the Civic Centre in Victoria Island.
