A former Military President of Nigeria, retired General Ibrahim Badamasi Babaginda (IBB) has raised alarm over the level of corruption in the country, noting that he fought corruption better than President Muhammadu Buhari is doing now.
The former military ruler claimed that the people who worked under him were saints compared to those currently in power. He disclosed this on Friday during an interview with ARISE TV.
Babangida who said as a military President he once sacked a former military governor who embezzled N313,000, lamented that those who stole billions are currently walking freely.
“But what’s happening now is worse, you can’t compare it with the facts on the ground now. You can say it. From what I read, from analysis, I think we are saints when compared to what is happening under a democratic dispensation.
“I sacked a governor for misappropriating less than three hundred and thirteen thousand.
“Today, those who have stolen billions and are in courts and are now parading themselves on the streets. Who else is better in fighting corruption?.. we are saints when compared with that.”
Earlier, The New Diplomat had reported that Babangida, who served as head of state between 1985 and 1993 stated in the interview that he had already discovered person(s) who should be the next Nigerian President.
IBB said Nigeria is in dire need of a leader who connects with the people, tries to talk with them and not the one who “talks on top of the people.”
“I have started visualising a good Nigerian leader. That is, a person, who travels across the country and has a friend virtually everywhere he travels to and he knows at least one person that he can communicate with,” he said.
“That is a person, who is very vast in economics and is also a good politician, who should be able to talk to Nigerians and so on. I have seen one, or two or three of such persons already in his sixties.”
IBB also said he has a very good relationship with Buhari, blaming the seeming rift between them on the media.
