Founder of the Latter Rain Assembly, Tunde Bakare has affirmed that government officials in Nigeria have succeeded in making corrupt practices official in the country.

Bakare, who made this statement at the launch of Onyekachi Ubani Foundation in Lagos, weekend, noted that: “At the twilight of the military era in Nigeria’s political trajectory, the name “Nigeria” became synonymous with a certain word, a word that elicits the image of a cesspool running over corruption.

“At that time, precisely in 1999, Transparency International rated Nigeria the second most corrupt country in the world in terms of perception, second only to her eastern neighbour, Cameroon.

“For instance, given the unbridled looting of the treasury at the time, reportedly to the tune of over 1billion dollars as was subsequently uncovered following the exit of the military, it was obvious that the abnormal had become the norm, the illegal had become legal, the outrageous had become banal and the aberrant had become the gold standard.

“Despite the emergence of a new government on the heels of a strong anti-corruption campaign, despite the credence lent to this anti-corruption promise by the antecedents of President Muhammadu Buhari, and despite global acknowledgment that Nigeria has taken shovel loads off the peak of this mountain of filth,” he added.