As the race towards the 2023 presidential election gathers momentum, a Chieftain of the ruling All Progressive Congress, APC, Mr. Gbenga Olawepo-Hashim has counselled that those who messed up our polity and put the country in ruins cannot suddenly start parading themselves as the solution to the rot holding the nation down.
In a statement released by his media office in Abuja, the former Presidential Candidate argued that those who pillaged the country, their side kicks, their bankers, business fronts,partners, media handlers and enablers cannot be gathering together again grandstanding as pathfinders of a new Nigeria
He explained that corrupt people and their allies cannot midwife the birth of a new Nigeria and that those who messed up the country and pushed the nation into the hole cannot come and present themselves as the light to get us out of the dark tunnel we find ourselves.
“Only people of proven integrity,unquestionable patriotism with clarity of vision and courage should be allowed by the good people of Nigeria in the next rounds of elections if the country will not become irreversibly ruined,” he said.
According to him, it will be an unfathomable tragedy to allow those who have stolen Nigeria blind to plan the future of the country, adding that a good footstep in winning the battle to reduce corruption if not kill it totally, is to ensure that corrupt people with unexplainable wealth do not get elected at any level.
“Those who have explanation to make to anti-graft agencies and are aspiring for public offices, must be put to task about their integrity question,” he noted.
The businessman and global energy executive maintained that though the fight against corruption was a major plank of the Buhari Administration, corruption has become one of the major reason for the slow progress and the underbelly of some of the security problems such as banditry and kidnappings.
In his words: “Nigeria loses a lot to corruption. According to Price Water Cooper (PWC), a global Consulting outfit, if not arrested by 2030, corruption will be costing Nigeria 37% of her GDP; i.e. 200 billion USD, a whooping N100 trillion (Naira), about 10 times our national budget.”
“This will translate to 1,000 USD per capital; five hundred thousand by each Nigerian. The significance of this on our lives, in terms of avoidable death is staggering”
Two years ago, the Human and Environmental Development Agenda, HEDA, a frontline anti-corruption advocacy group in Nigeria, published a compendium of 100 high profile corruption cases in Nigeria running into billions of naira and foreign currencies perpetrated by mostly political office holders and politically exposed persons.
Olawepo-Hashim therefore concluded that “corruption in Nigeria is in various dimension…It is eroding ethics and values and breeds a triumphant feeling of impunity that believes there will be no consequence for wrong doing!”
Picture: Gbenga Olawepo-Hashim
