Nigeria will not be saved by corrupt politicians- Olawepo-Hashim

Mr. Gbenga Olawepo-Hashim, a senior member of the ruling All Progressives Congress, APC, has stated that corrupt politicians who screwed up the system and left Nigeria in ruins cannot suddenly come posing as answers to the country’s issues. 

Former presidential candidate Atiku Abubakar argued in a statement released by his media office in Abuja over the weekend that those who pillaged the country, their sidekicks, bankers, business fronts, partners, media handlers, and enablers, cannot be gathering together again grandstanding as pathfinders of a new Nigeria.  

He stated that corrupt politicians and their allies are unable to give birth to a new Nigeria, and that those who messed up the country and pushed it into the hole are unable to come forward and offer themselves as the light that would lead us out of the dark tunnel in which we find ourselves. 

“Only those of proven honesty, undeniable patriotism, clarity of vision, and courage should be permitted to run in the next round of elections by the good people of Nigeria if the nation is not to be irrevocably wrecked,” he stated.  

According to him, allowing individuals who have plundered Nigeria blind to design the country’s future will be an incomprehensible tragedy, and ensuring that crooked people with inexplicable wealth do not get elected at any level is a good first step in winning the struggle to decrease, if not eliminate, corruption. 

“Those who have to explain themselves to anti-graft agencies and are running for public office,must be held accountable for their lack of integrity.” he said 

Though the battle against corruption was a primary plank of the Buhari administration, the billionaire and global energy executive claimed that corruption has become one of the major causes for the slow progress and the resurgence of several security issues such as banditry and kidnappings. 

“Corruption costs Nigeria a lot,According to Price Waterhouse Coopers (PWC), a worldwide consulting firm, if corruption is not tackled by 2030, it would cost Nigeria 37 percent of its GDP, or $200 billion USD, or N100 trillion (Naira), or almost ten times our national budget ” he remarked. 

“This will amount to $1,000 per capita; each Nigerian will receive $500,000. The impact of this on our life in terms of preventable mortality is enormous.”