Former Governor of Anambra State, Peter Obi has stated that fighting corruption as an economic policy is a waste of time. He also stated that the ordeal of the former acting chairman of the Economic and Financial Crime Commission (EFCC), Ibrahim Magu hurt Nigeria more than the embattled anti-corruption Czar himself.
Ibrahim Magu who is being investigated for alleged corruption and abuse of office spent 10 days in detention after he was arrested on July 6.
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The former vice presidential candidate made his views known during an interview session with the sun where he further advised the Federal Government to focus on revamping the economy instead of focusing solely on fighting corruption as an economic policy.
He stated that the Federal Government was too preoccupied with wrong and unnecessary things. He said the country was in too much un-serviceable debts which the FG should find creative ways of bringing Nigeria out of.
According to excerpts from the interview;
“What you hear today is not the news we should be hearing. What we hear today should be serious issues on the way we are going to go. We should be talking of a reliable roadmap. It should not be about how, in NDDC, Joy Nunieh slapped Akpabio, Oshiomhole vs. Obaseki, Magu this and that etc.”
“We are preoccupied with travelling in the wrong direction. Just open the newspapers, including your own today and you see what the headlines will be. It is about one rascality or the other. I said even during the presidential election that you can fight thieves, but that should not be the primary focus of a government.
“Fighting corruption as an economic policy is a waste of everybody’s time. You can fight thieves, by what you are doing to salvage, strengthen, and rejig your economy. Let me tell you, what Magu is going through today is hurting the country more than it is hurting Magu, if you don’t know. Some people think today that oh Magu is in a mess, that Magu is this and that, but do you know who is in a mess? Nigeria.
“Newspaper headlines in a serious economy should be that the government, for instance, has decided to support SMEs with this or that quantum of money.
Looking at the last budget, we are providing not less than N2.9 trillion for servicing of debt, but our education and health budget combined is about the third of this. I can tell you that in the end, the amount we use in servicing the debt will be more than what is provided because we are borrowing more.
The reason that is happening is that the debt we are servicing is not productive. Look at our development between 2010 and now.”