According to Professor Babafemi Badejo, a renowned scholar in Political Science and International Relations, he believes that President Bola Tinubu’s administration, if elected, will perform worse than former President Muhammadu Buhari’s government, particularly in addressing corruption in Nigeria.
The professor made this assertion during his inaugural lecture titled “Interests” at Chrisland University in Abeokuta, Ogun State. He acknowledged that Tinubu might excel in other aspects based on his recent actions, but he expressed scepticism about his commitment to combating corruption.
His words: “It is my own view that former President Muhammadu Buhari failed woefully on the issue of anti-corruption. He did start by wanting to implement the UN anti-corruption strategy and went further to appoint a committee and that committee did nothing till today”
“On President Tinubu, it is too early to give a conclusion, but I can say that from what he has done in one month, he will do by far better than Buhari, but not on corruption.
“He (Tinubu) has not been talking about corruption, but all he has been saying is that he is going to make sure that judges are comfortable, make everybody comfortable, but no country around the world can be comfortable by staying very far away from fighting corruption. Maybe he will change his mind later on corruption. I wish him well.”
He added: “Successive administrations, including that of President Buhari, have not faced corruption frontally with the full force of a political will that goes beyond mere lip service.
“Though possibly a hasty conclusion, I do not think the objective realities would allow President Tinubu to do any better, even if he ever wanted to fight corruption. The resultant outcome is unfruitful half-heartedly done prosecutorial gimmicks and noise, cherry-picking and selective haphazard trials.
“There is a need to ensure that in dealing with corruption, no one is immune or beyond the reach of the laws, by virtue of whatever relationships or status. This is indeed very important as part of steps by the President and those in top leadership positions, to begin to demonstrate their commitment to the anti-corruption war, through their personal examples of zero tolerance for corruption.”
