Nigeria's former President Olusegun Obasanjo, while speaking with students of the Obafemi Awolowo University on Friday said fighting corruption should start from the presidency.

“The president promised he will fight corruption. And there is no doubt that he has shown that he is willing to fight corruption. Corruption is a hydra-headed monster.

“I believe very much that fighting corruption just has to start from the top. That is, from the president, the vice president, the senate president, the speaker of the House, the Chief Justice of Nigeria (CJN).”

Just as he mentioned the CJN, one of the participants, who was later joined by others, asked the former president to include himself and other former presidents in the list of those to be probed for corruption.

Reacting, he said: “Did I hear somebody say and you? Oh, you mean and former presidents? Former presidents have either done their bit when they were in office or they did not.

“The instruments we are using today (to fight corruption) were all fashioned out by me when I was in office. We did not have anything like the instruments (ICPC, EFCC) before. Not only did I bring up these instruments, I also looked for the right people who could make the instruments work.

“Nuhu Ribadu was in charge of the EFCC and then, the fear of Ribadu was the beginning of wisdom. For ICPC, I specially head-hunted somebody like Justice Mustapha Akanbi to run it,” he said.


Tribune