Nigeria’s Current Executives, Legislators Should Be Jailed Permanently For Past Misconduct – Obasanjo

Former President Olusegun Obasanjo has stated that the current individuals in the executive and legislative arms of government should be jailed permanently for their past misdemeanours and criminal misconduct.

Obasanjo disclosed this on Friday via his official X account, saying if one looks “clinically” into the people in government today, some are liable to a permanent jail term.

If you look clinically at the people in government today at both executive and legislative levels, some of them should be permanently behind bars for their past misdemeanour and criminal misconduct,” the statement reads.

Similarly, on Friday, September 19, 2024, the 87-year-old stateman reportedly demanded that corrupt politicians be jailed for misconduct.

According to a report by The Cable, Obasanjo made the demand during a virtual memorial lecture of Denis Joseph Slattery, a late Catholic Priest in Lagos State.

You cannot expect thieves to give good judgement in favour of the owner of the property,” he stated.

Recalling his experience with corruption as an ex-president, Obasanjo stated, “The first thing that shocked me when I went into politics was the level of corruption of election officials, which was taken as normal.”

“The second was the level of general and criminal misbehaviour, which was taken with levity and impunity.  We were at a meeting, and a man lied. I confronted him, and the next thing he said was, ‘It is all politics, Sir’.

“Every bad thing they do is passed on as politics, which means politics has no room for morality, principles, rectitude, ethics, good character and attributes,” he stated.

Obasanjo reiterated the need for “transformational leaders rather than transactional leaders, truth instead of lies, honesty instead of dishonesty, integrity instead of disintegrity, hope instead of despair, production instead of deduction, inclusion instead of exclusion and marginalisation.”

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Mayowa Durosinmi

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Mayowa Durosinmi is a Nigerian investigative reporter for West Africa Weekly with reports focusing on politics, human rights, security and health in West Africa and the Sahel region.

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