Defining Corruption: TransCorp Nigeria

Chippla Vandu, a Nigerian-born moderate blogger, writes: "Olusegun Obasanjo claims to be fighting a war against corruption in Nigeria. One is however left wondering if he saw nothing immoral or wrong about a sitting president, and a public officer, buying a significant number of shares in a conglomerate that in turn had been busy buying up publicly traded companies. By acquiring millions of shares in TransCorp, Obasanjo seemed to be telling the very people he governs that he finds it quite difficult to discern what constitutes a corrupt practice.

Furthermore, according to renowned Nigerian lawyer, Gani Fawehinmi, Obasanjo violated the 'Code of Conduct for Public Officers' as stipulated in the Nigerian constitution. Such a man is simply not fit to lead a war on corruption. To make matters worse, the sanctimonious Mr. Obasanjo recently laid charges against his deputy, Atiku Abubakar, on the floor of the bi-cameral Nigerian legislature.

He requested that Abubakar be impeached for corrupt practices. Abubakar hit back hard, opening what may be called 'a can of worms' by bringing forward evidence of corrupt practices against Obasanjo. The upper house of the Nigerian legislature—the Senate—finally decided to probe both Olusegun Obasanjo and Atiku Abubakar for corrupt practices with regard to funds allocated for petroleum technology development.

Should both men be found guilty (which would most likely be the case) they should both be impeached. Anything short of that would be a waste of time, a waste of public funds, an insult to people who work hard day and night in Nigeria in order to make a living, and a sanctioning of the presence of miscreants in what ought to be respectable political offices in Nigeria."