Former Nigerian military president Ibrahim Badamasi Babangida (IBB), who ruled the country from 1985 to 1993, has shared his thoughts on how to cleanse the country of corruption.
In a recent interview with Trust Tv, the octogenarian stated that while he has retired from politics, he remains interested in current events.
He said, “Yes I have retired from politics; not involved in politics but still interested in what is happening in politics because this is my country, I don’t have any other country, I have to take interest in what is going on.”
However, he still gave some candid advice on how the government can win the war against corruption.
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IBB said, “I sold an idea but because it came from me, nobody likes it, nobody will like to hear it: Identify areas of corruption and attack them from the source. I read in one of the newspapers where a judge was complaining that they are not well remunerated by the public and that is a sure source of corruption.
“Wherever you have a system where you have a lot of control there will be corruption. So, what we try to do, we got government not to be involved in things like production; anything to do with I have to come to you and you will always think you are doing me a favour, so maybe I should reciprocate it, that is the sort of thing.
He continued, “And that is why we introduced freeing the economy; you don’t need a license to be graded Grade A your groundnut or cocoa or cotton or whatever it is; you don’t need to go to the central bank or to go to banks to get foreign exchange.
“There are bureau de change, they set it up in market areas, where you can easily go and get it; so the sources of corruption has to be identified and attacked.”
