Imprison Them: Olusegun Obasanjo Advocates Harsh Punishment For……

Former President and elder statesman, Chief Olusegun Obasanjo, is known for his brutal truth, and fearless frankness.

This is hardly surprising given his antecedents in the polity. And by virtue of his tall reputation both locally and globally, his voice stands out anytime he speaks.

And he has just spoken again, advocating what many may consider a harsh verdict.

Imprison them, he declares, as his verdict on corrupt Nigerian leaders.

He gave the verdict against the backdrop of the level of corruption among political office holders in the country.

“If you examine the people in government today at both executive and legislative levels, some of them should be permanently behind bars for their past misdemeanours and criminal misconduct.

“You cannot expect thieves to deliver fair judgement in favour of the rightful owner of the property.

“The first thing that shocked me when I entered politics was the level of corruption among election officials, which was considered normal.

“The second was the extent of general and criminal misbehaviour, which was treated with levity and impunity. We were in a meeting where a man lied, and I confronted him. The next thing he said was, ‘It’s all politics, Sir.’

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“Every wrongdoing is excused as politics, which suggests that politics has no room for morality, principles, rectitude, ethics, good character, or positive attributes.”

The Abeokuta-born elder statesman recalled an instance where he challenged a politician (name undisclosed) who had made a false statement, but instead of correcting it, the politician simply attributed his statement to the nature of “politics.”

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Obasanjo was speaking virtually during the memorial lecture of the late cleric Denis Slattery, held in Lagos State, under the theme: ‘The Imperative for Moral Rectitude in Governance

Chief Olusegun Obasanjo also contended that the country needed transformational leaders rather than transactional leaders, truth instead of lies, honesty instead of dishonesty, integrity instead of disintegration, hope instead of despair, production instead of deduction, inclusion instead of exclusion and marginalization.

Event was the Slattery Memorial lecture –  Slattery, an Irish-born missionary, founded St. Finbarr’s College in January 1956 – organised by the Old Boys’ Association of St. Finbarr’s College at the Civic Centre in Victoria Island, Lagos.