Nigeria's politics needs men of integrity, Obi says

Mr Peter Obi, the former Anambra Governor and Vice Presidential Candidate of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) has advised that a new Nigeria will emerge if honest men can join the political space with the intention of causing positive change.

He made the statement during his appearance on Nigeria Leadership Series, hosted by Pastor Ituah Ighodalo.

According to Obi, Nigerian elites of part of the problem facing the nation, adding that, as informed citizens who were at the forefront of change, they had refused to contribute positively to nation-building, but were bent on finding ways of satisfying their selfish interests.

“What we see in Nigeria today is a situation where people are getting more greedy and becoming less caring about the less privileged. The learned and averagely comfortable ones in the country have little or no virtue of contentment. The less privileged ones who need all the opportunity in life to become rich, now appear to be more honest than the elite.”

He shared the hope that Nigeria would become a better place if men of integrity would bring in honesty into the country’s political landscape.

He said the current evils of godfatherism, bribery and corruption, abuse of public office and so on, would be reduced when people who have the nation’s interest at heart join politics. He argued that politics would arguably remain dirty, as long as people who have selfish interests continue to parade the corridors of power.

He further noted that fear of criticism, verbal and physical attacks, and in some cases death, had made many well-meaning Nigerians stand aloof from the political process of the nation.

“Every country that has progressed from failure to national success passed through the same phase. Men of vision, sincerity, uprightness, probity, honour and moral rectitude, always rise up to cause a wave of change that turns around a nation for the better. We have such men in Nigeria. This is the time for them to rise up and join hands to save our country,” he concluded.