Former Nigerian President, Olusegun Obasanjo, has expressed strong criticism against certain individuals in both executive and legislative branches of the government, stating that some should be imprisoned due to their past misconduct.
Obasanjo made these remarks during a virtual speech delivered at the Denis Joseph Slattery Memorial Lecture, held in Lagos on Thursday.
The event, which took place at the Civic Centre on Victoria Island, was organized by the Old Boys’ Association of St. Finbarr’s College. It drew the attention of prominent figures, including former Cross River governor Donald Duke, ex-footballer Segun Odegbami, music producer ID Cabasa, and actor Patrick Doyle.
Speaking on the theme, 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.”
“You cannot expect thieves to give good judgement in favour of the owner of the property.”
Obasanjo recalled his shocking experience with corruption, citing how a government official normalised criminal behaviour 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,” he said.
“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.”
“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”, Obasanjo said
