– Former president, Olusegun Obasanjo, on
Saturday, said if the Economic and Financial Crimes
Commission, EFCC, and the Independent Corrupt Practices
and Other Related Offences Commission, ICPC, do their
jobs properly and with adequate support of the judiciary,
many presidential aspirants ahead of 2023 would be in jail.
The former president who spoke at an international
symposium organised to mark his 85th birthday at the
Olusegun Obasanjo Presidential Library (OOPL), Abeokuta,
the Ogun State capital, said anybody who doesn’t have
integrity in small things cannot have integrity in big things.
Obasanjo, who spoke on the theme of the symposium,
“Africa Narrative with Nigeria Situation”, insisted that
Nigerians must learnt from the events of the past and put
aside sentiments in choosing the next president of the
country. He said: “I cast a cursory look at some of the
people running around and those for whom people are
running around.
“Any person who has no integrity in small things cannot
have integrity in big things. “Fixing Nigeria must begin on the
principles of nation building, not necessarily on emotion,
sentiments, euphoria, ignorance, incompetence, ethnicity,
nepotism, bigotry, sectionalism, regionalism, religion or
class.]
“The issues of security, stability, development, economy and
our relationship within Africa and with the rest of the world
can only be taken care of if we get the issue of nation
building right.
“We have a lot to learn from the events of the last almost
twenty-four years and God is not to blame if we fail.”