…Says politicians responsible for disunity in Nigeria
Former military president, General Ibrahim Badamasi Babangida, (rtd), a.k.a IBB, has said that the corruption index in the country is worse and more pervasive at the moment than his time in power.
He said they were saints when compared to the people in power now.
He said: “You can’t compare it with the facts on the ground now. From what I read, from the analyses, I think we are saints when compared to what is happening under a democratic dispensation. I sacked a governor of a state for misappropriating less than N313,000.
“Today, billions are there on the streets. Those who have stolen billions, they are in court and are now parading themselves in the streets. So, who is better in fighting corruption?
IBB also accused politicians of creating disunity in the country.
“If you look back, if you take a place like Baga, in the North-East, the Igbo man, Yoruba man travelled up to that place for trading, he lived very comfortably and lived very well with the people around there. The same in Lagos; Igbos, who hold political appointments at local levels and live very well with the people.
“I think we, the coming elites, did not succeed in imbibing that culture (culture of unity) for the country; we rather live with the culture that the Europeans handed over to us — Northern Nigeria, Eastern Nigeria, Western Nigeria. We have in 1963, mid-west but we did not build ourselves as a nation.
“Till today, unfortunately, the political class are not really into this seriously and ask: ‘how do we build a nation?”, he stated.
