Igbo Leaders of Thought led by renowned constitutional lawyer, Prof Ben Nwabueze have said that although President Muhammadu Buhari’s anti-corruption crusade is very important, corruption is not our primary problem in Nigeria.
While speaking with journalists after the group’s meeting at Modotel Hotel in Enugu, Nwabueze insisted that there are other issues that are even more important than corruption.
He listed illiteracy, poverty and security as the other issues that shouldn’t be ignored.
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.”
He urged the President to “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.”