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Nigerian former Head of State, Yakubu Gowon, on Monday advanced reasons why some Nigeria leaders who ruled the country after him indulge in corrupt practices.
This is just as the former Nigerian leader frowned at a situation that allows for labeling all former leaders as ” corrupt” adding that such labeling was not proper as some did not engage in corruption
The former leader who was over thrown in a military coup in 1975 said those leaders may have learned lessons from the situation he found himself after he was removed from office in 1975.
Gowon, while speaking at the Eighth Annual General Meeting and Conference for Heads of Anti-corruption Agencies in Commonwealth Africa, recounted how he was sustained by ” benevolent junior officers” who accompanied him to the Organization of Africa Unity ( OAU) which later metamorphosed into Africa Union ( AU) meeting when he was overthrown, ” contributed their estacode” to sustain him after he was removed from office.
Noting that he was unprepared for what he faced after the coup, Gowon said ” I did not prepare for the future” he added that this may have accounted for why those who came after have decided to “prepare”
According to him ” Everything we had in the country belong to the nation, belong to the people and we must not touch anything,”
“it was some of my staff who attended the OAU meeting with me that contributed their estacode to let me have something to live on”.
He noted that he did not pay lip service to corruption, but ” dealt with corrupt cases in his cabinet promptly”
“We made sure nothing like that happened, especially in the civil service,”
Tony Ailemen, Abuja
