Corrupt Politicians Being Given Top Govt Positions – Emir Sanusi

The 16th Emir of Kano, His Highness Dr Muhammadu Sanusi, has said corrupt politicians are being compensated with ministerial and senatorial positions.

According to Sanusi, most people in government today are not well-educated, so they engage in corruption without considering the future.

Speaking on Channels TV’s Politics Today programme, Sanusi said Nigerian politicians “today do not have names or values to protect. They don’t want to leave a good name behind.”

He called for re-evaluating moral values, saying illegal wealth acquisition was the order of the day.

Sanusi decried the situation where people who had stolen public wealth were compensated with appointments and senatorial positions.

“The situation where people who have stolen public wealth are compensated with appointments and senatorial positions is not good,” he said.

However, he noted that one man could not address the challenge of corruption and called for a general reorientation of family values.

On the way forward to tackle corruption, he said, politicians destroy civil servants, not the other way around, where civil servants are constantly accused of corruption alone.

He said some civil servants had stood out, adding that  even when the late General Murtala Muhammed purged 10,000 civil servants out of government work for corruption, no one was sacked from the Ministry of External Affairs under his father then.

He said civil servants must be protected at all costs saying, “since they are always under the minister in charge of the ministry. They are not independent and strong enough to reject the minister’s order when needed.”

On the economy, the emir said Nigeria spent decades pursuing policies that were detrimental to the society, which had brought Nigeria to where it is today.

LEADERSHIP reports that in 2024, Nigeria scored 26 out of 100 on Transparency International’s Corruption Perceptions Index (CPI), ranking 140th out of 180 countries. This score indicated a perceived high level of corruption in the public sector. While the score represented a slight improvement from the previous year (25 in 2023), it still placed Nigeria among the countries with the most perceived corruption.

The CPI measures the perceived levels of public sector corruption using a scale of 0 to 100, where zero is highly corrupt and 100 is very clean. Nigeria’s score of 26 signifies that the country is perceived as having significant issues with corruption in its public sector.

Specifically, the CPI assesses the misuse of public office for personal gain, diversion of public funds, and the government’s inability to contain corruption effectively. Nigeria’s continued low score and ranking emphasise the ongoing challenges in combating corruption.

Meanwhile, the Chairman of the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC), Ola Olukoyede, has said most of the abandoned estates in the federal capital territory (FCT) are owned by civil servants who have stolen money and abandoned the estates to avoid being investigated.

Olukoyede said the anti-graft agency had set up a special team to visit such properties, as some estates had been abandoned for over ten years.

Olukoyede said the agency had had cause to file for forfeiture for about 15 estates in recent times.

The EFCC boss stated this in Abuja on Wednesday at a policy dialogue organised by Law Corridor with the theme, “Critical Issues Affecting Nigeria’s Real Estate Ecosystem.”

According to him, “I have set up the team. We will start visiting all the estates in Abuja and across Nigeria. We want to know who owns what.

“It will shock you that some of these estates have been abandoned for ten to 20 years. They take it to a level, and they leave it.

“Nobody knows what is going on. We have gathered that most of these estates were funded by civil servants who have stolen money,” he said.

The EFCC chairman disclosed, “The moment they leave public service, and the money is no longer coming, they abandon the estate. Then, the developer will start looking for investors to support them in completing the project.

“We have got more intelligent, too. Some of you are sitting in this room, and probably some of those estates belong to you. However, we expect to meet you in court very soon because there is no way we will develop this sector if we continue with that attitude. I know some of you have your genuine source of capital.”