‘Buhari’s govt fighting corrupt people, not corruption’

A Nigerian leading legal practitioner, Malam Yusuf Olaolu Ali (SAN), has faulted the approach being employed by the current government in its  anti-corruption crusade, saying it is not yielding the desired results.

Speaking with journalists after conferment with fellowship award by the Kwara State Polytechnic, for his donation of an e-Resource Centre building to the institution in Ilorin, at the weekend, Mallam Ali said the government of President Muhammad Buhari has only succeeded in the fight against alleged corrupt people but not corruption.

The legal icon, who said corruption had permeated all fabrics of the nation’s life, added that everyone must be involved in attitudinal reorientation and rejuvenation to achieve a turn around.

“At the presentation of my book ‘Anatomy of Corruption’ in Abuja in May this year, I said categorically that top to bottom approach on the fight against corruption can never work.

“If you want to fight corruption you must create a mass movement. Majority of Nigerians must buy into it, but you arrest three people out of 10,000. What have you achieved? What is going on is fight against corrupt people not against corruption per say.

“Corruption is an institutional thing, so fight against it is more than what we are doing. Because if we are not careful, the things we are not doing properly may become a culture. If you want to fight against corruption we have to dig deeper.

“I tell people that for the street to be clean every member of the street must keep his corner clean.”

“Corruption is symptomatic of a deeper problem. When we are talking about corruption we should not limit it to bribery. Nepotism is corruption; ethnicity is corruption; tribalism is corruption and influence peddling is also corruption. Just fighting by public officials is a tip of the iceberg,” he said.

The Senior Advocate of Nigeria, who decried the current economic recession Nigerians are going through, said it was largely caused by bad image of a country riddled with corruption that was sold to the outside world, which he said, had prompted investors to stop bringing in their money.

Yusuf Ali said it was lack of confidence in Nigeria’s economy that caused the recession, adding that for the country to recover from the current economic problems, there was the urgent need to go out and market Nigeria to the outside world in such a way that investors would start bringing in their money, again.

The legal icon also called on individuals, and private organisations to partner with governments at all levels to rescue the nation’s education from total collapse, stressing that it’s very clear now that the government cannot do it all alone.

He added that henceforth students in tertiary institutions across the country must be prepared by their curriculum to overcome the challenges of unemployment from the time they are students before they graduate.