Corruption Is Not Nigeria’s Major Problem – Nwabueze

Corruption Is Not Nigeria’s Major Problem – Nwabueze

Posted by Sylvester on Friday, October 23, 2015 0

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The Igbo Leaders of Thought led by renowned constitutional lawyer, Prof Ben Nwabueze, has said that although the fight against corruption is very important, other vital issues like poverty, illiteracy and security should not be neglected, as 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, 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.

“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, said.

He noted that the major problem Nigeria has is coalescing the over 389 ethnic nationalities into one nation.

“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,” he urged President Buhari.