Former President Olusegun Obasanjo has claimed that Nigeria is gradually becoming a failed state under President Bola Tinubu.
Mr Obasanjo lamented that the nation is sinking deeper into insecurity, division, and underdevelopment.
He attributed these to widespread corruption, mediocrity, and a lack of accountability in the country.
The former president stated this while delivering a keynote address at the Chinua Achebe Leadership Forum, Yale University, New Haven, Connecticut, USA.
A statement issued by his media aide, Kehinde Akinyemi, on Saturday, said Mr Obasanjo’s presentation was titled “Leadership Failure and State Capture in Nigeria”.
He said: “Nigeria’s situation, as we can see and understand, is bad. The more the immorality and corruption of a nation, the more the nation sinks into chaos, insecurity, conflict, discord, division, disunity, depression, youth restiveness, confusion, violence, and underdevelopment.
“That’s the situation mostly in Nigeria in the reign of Baba-go-slow and Emilokan. The failing state status of Nigeria is confirmed and glaringly indicated, and manifested for every honest person to see through the consequences of the level of our pervasive corruption, mediocrity, immorality, misconduct, mismanagement, perversion, injustice, incompetence, and all other forms of iniquity. But yes, there is hope.”
Quoting a World Bank and Transparency International definition of state capture, Mr Obasanjo described it “as one of the most pervasive forms of corruption,“ a situation where powerful individuals, institutions, companies, or groups within or outside a country use corruption to shape a nation’s policies, legal environment, and economy, to benefit their own private interests.
According to him, state capture is not always overt and obvious, as it could also arise from the more subtle close alignment of interests between specific business and political elites through family ties, friendships, and the intertwined ownership of economic assets.
Mr Obasanjo said: “What is happening in Nigeria—right before our eyes—is state capture: the purchase of national assets by political elites—and their family members—at bargain prices, the allocation of national resources—minerals, land, and even human resources—to local, regional, and international actors. It must be prohibited and prevented through local and international laws.
“Public institutions such as the legislature, the executive, the judiciary, and regulatory agencies both at the federal and local levels are subject to capture. As such, state capture can broadly be understood as the disproportionate and unregulated influence of interest groups or decision-making processes, where special interest groups manage to bend state laws, policies, and regulations.
“They do so through practices such as illicit contributions paid by private interests to political parties, and for election campaigns, vote-buying, buying of presidential decrees or court decisions, as well as through illegitimate lobbying and revolving door appointments.
“The main risk of state capture is that decisions no longer take into consideration the public interest but instead favour a specific special interest group or individual. Laws, policies, and regulations are designed to benefit a specific interest group, often times to the detriment of smaller firms and groups and society in general.
“State capture can seriously affect economic development, regulatory quality, the provision of public services, quality of education and health services, infrastructure decisions, and even the environment and public health.”
Speaking on the personality of the great author and writer, China Achebe, Mr Obasanjo said he was a great and distinguished Nigerian who made significant sacrifices for the country through his work.
