Obasanjo: It’s Impossible to Fight Corruption

Former President Olusegun Obasanjo Wednesday told world leaders that the Federal Government lacks the political will to fight corruption, which he described as a cankerworm that has militated against the development of the economy.

Obasanjo, who made this revelation at the ongoing 100th International Labour Conference holding in Geneva, Switzerland, also accused politicians of deploying proceeds of crude oil to fund their various political ambitions.

Speaking at a high-level panel meeting on the platform of the Club de Madrid, the former president maintained that it would be impossible for government to fight corruption,  that the people that are involved in the practice are strongly entrenched in governance.

Obasanjo, who admitted that the fight against corruption in the country could not be achieved overnight, said that it would be difficult for corruption to be eradicated in Nigeria, except leaders are ready to confront those involved in the practice to the point of giving up their lives in the process.

Fielding questions from delegates at the Conference, he explained that corruption found its way into the nation’s economy with the discovery of oil shortly after independence, adding that the overdependence of oil had become a doom rather than a boom for the country.

He said the politicians saw the advent of oil boom as opportunity to milk the nation’s resources by awarding contracts to themselves and in the process setting aside some percentages to fund their political parties.

When asked on how the present administration tend to address the issue of corruption and unfair distribution of resources, Obasanjo said: “You are absolutely right about corruption as the cankerworm that has militated against our development and does not allow us to develop as fast as we ought to be. When we came out of the civil war, oil was discovered but the oil became a doom rather than a boom for us because nobody wanted to do anything as we were torn between agriculture, industry and oil. 

Nobody wanted to do anything because we were thinking oil, sleeping oil and were almost drinking oil. It was that bad.

“More importantly, corruption came in initially with politics at independence when our politicians were awarding contracts at 10 per cent, they saw it as a way to make money for their party. 10 per cent of that contract is used to develop the party. Then it went beyond 10 per cent to 20 per cent and sometimes 25 per cent and at a time it grew so large that when you are given a job, you don’t just care to do it but share the money or whatever they call it. That was very bad.”

However, he said his administration recorded significant success in the fight against corruption which saw the arrest and prosecution of high ranking public officers by the anti-corruption agencies established under his tenure.