I Did My Best To Fight Corruption – IBB

Babangida made the disclosure in an exclusive interview published in the current edition of Zero Tolerance, a periodic magazine of the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC).

“Well, we had different approaches. I think my government was able to identify corruption prone areas and checked them. If you remember in this country, there were things they call essential commodities. These are also sources of corruption; you go and buy omo or food or whatever it is and we got government to take its hands off such activities.

“Let people use their own brains, hands and labour, nobody has to do it for them. So we did but I am proud to say that was much more effective,” he said.

The former president further revealed that he is the most investigated president Nigeria has ever had and that if what he reads in the newpapers are currently happening, then he along with members of his junta were angels.

He added every government that came after him investigated him with the sole aim of retrieving billions perceived to have been stolen by his government, a situation he said was not a reality but rather the Nigerian media perception.

“Let me tell you something, maybe you have a hand in it. I have been the most investigated president Nigeria has ever had. By now somebody should have come forward to say here it is. Every government that came after me investigated me because of that perception and they wanted to retrieve the billions I stole, “ he said.

On why his government did not come up with any specific anti-corruption programme like his immediate predecesor, Babangida said he learnt from the mistakes of those before him and tried not to fall into the same trap.

“If you take for example the War Against Indiscipline, they were teaching you you how to queue, to say sorry when you march somebody. It hasn’t soved anything. It was trying to make you civil in yoyr approach to things. Okay I accepted I am going to queue before I get into a car but I might have bribed somebody before I got a ticket to go into the vehicle. We tried not to fall into the same trap by tackling the source and making corrections in those places,” Babangida added.

 

Source: Leadership