Corruption Not Our Primary Problem, Says Nwabueze
The Igbo leaders of Thought led by renowned constitutional lawyer, Prof Ben Nwabueze, said yesterday in Enugu that while the fight against corruption remains important, other vital issues like poverty, illiteracy and security should not be neglected.
The group insisted that corruption is not the nation’s primary problem especially at this moment.
Speaking with journalists after the group’s meeting at Modotel Hotel in Enugu, the leader of the group, Nwabueze, pointed out that the current preoccupation with fighting corruption detracts from other vital national issues arising from the dysfunctional federal system practised by Nigeria.
Nwabueze said: “Everybody is thinking that all that we need is to fight corruption, it is important but it is not our primary problem. The primary question is that there are other issues that are even more important than corruption. We have the question of illiteracy, the question of poverty, the question of security.
“Important as the war against corruption is, we are of the view that there are other issues that overshadow corruption. Another is the question of what we call the national question. This means the problem of transforming Nigeria into a nation. Nigeria is not a nation, it is a state. We all want to belong to that state but we deceive ourselves always by thinking and painting the picture that we are already a nation, we are not.”
The leader of the group also said the major problem had to do with coalescing the over 389 ethnic nationalities into one nation, adding that almost every Nigerian would be happy to see the country unite as a nation.
He urged President Muhammadu Buhari to fight corruption without neglecting the constitutional limitations on power imposed by the federal system under which Nigeria operates.
“Fight corruption, fight it relentlessly but that fight should be subject to constitutional limitations especially limitations arising from the federal system. The federal system is a conspicuous device to limit power. If you do away with the limitations on power arising from the federal system we will be in trouble, much graver trouble than the trouble of corruption,” the respected constitutional lawyers said.
Nwabueze also called for the immediate relocation of the detained Boko Haram suspects transferred to Ekwulobia in Anambra State by the federal government.