Chairman of the Presidential Advisory Committee on War Against Corruption, Prof. Itse Sagay (SAN), Thursday declared that Nigeria would have completely collapsed like Zimbabwe had former President Goodluck Jonathan won the 2015 presidential election.
The radical lawyer while expressing his disappointment at the level of corruption that reigned during the administration of Jonathan, said by now the country would have been under the yoke of ferocious economic disaster if the President Muhammadu Buhari administration had not emerged.
Sagay made this stand in Abuja at the anti-corruption summit organized by the Open Society Initiative for West Africa, in conjunction with ONE Africa to brainstorm on issues ahead of the May 12 global anti-corruption summit in London.
While lamenting that corruption was fighting back in Nigeria very vigorously to frustrate the current anti-corruption war of the Buhari administration, he disclosed that those fighting back were corrupt Nigerians with huge war chest at their disposal.
Sagay said: “Given the unrestrained stealing and the enormous economic pillage under the Jonathan administration, it is not a surprise that the Nigerian economy is lying prostrate. The present administration needs time to fill in the big holes that were left by the previous administration.
“It is, therefore, irrational for anybody with perverse mentality to say that they should bring back corruption. The truth is if Jonathan had won the 2015 election, by now Nigeria would have completely become a failed state like Zimbabwe with huge inflation rate of N10 billion, or probably all of us would have to carry our little belongings to seek refuge in neighbouring countries.
“Nigeria would have witnessed a ferocious economic disaster if the Buhari administration had not emerged. All that is going on now is the rebuilding process of the economy that was so destroyed by the previous administration. Those praying for the return of Jonathan should thank God for not answering their prayers because it would have been a terrible nightmare.
“We must be patient and rational in our thinking for the inevitable change of the Buhari administration to come. It will surely come, but it is not a magic wand.”
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