Citizens’ Pressure Makes Nigerian Leaders Corrupt

A legal giant, Prof Yusuf Ali (SAN) has said many public office holders get ensnared in corrupt practices due to the citizens’ unreasonable demands from them.
He added that Nigerians have been corrupting their leaders through material demands and any crusade targeted at combating the cankerworm would amount to nothing.

Ali, who spoke with newsmen in Ilorin, Kwara State, said every Nigerian is corrupt.
He said it would betray logic to tag public office holders alone as a segment of the society that is riddled with corrupt practices, adding that the citizens must be ready to change their ways to rid the country of the menace.

“All of us are corrupt, not public officers alone. Nigerians corrupt their leaders. We should change our ways. That is the truth. If we don’t change our ways, we will just be talking about it. Nothing will happen.
“The way we corrupt our leaders, number one, we make unreasonable demands from the leaders; material demands. You know somebody is a councillor and he has a salary.
“Then you go to the person that he should buy you a car or you make such humongous demands on them. So, that is the misfortune”, Ali said.

On the annual walk recently organised by his Ghalib Chambers in Ilorin, Ali called on the citizens to keep exercise as a tradition, make it their daily affair and not just on an annual basis.
He urged Nigerians to preoccupy themselves with something positive every day so as to improve their well-being and health.