Matthew Kukah, Bishop of the Catholic Diocese of Sokoto, has slammed former President Muhammadu Buhari for allowing corruption to thrive under his watch.
Father Kukah claimed that the country witnessed the highest level of corruption under the Buhari administration.
The catholic bishop made the assertion on Monday, in Ekiti during a lecture he delivered at the celebration of the 60th anniversary of the call to bar of the founder of Afe Babalola University, Ado Ekiti, Aare Afe Babalola, SAN.
The lecture was titled ‘The Future of Constitutional Democracy in Nigeria: Imperative of a New Constitutional Order’.
Kukah, a human rights activist and one of the most critical of the administration of Buhari, however, stated that the problem of corruption did not start with the former administration, but was more pronounced under him.
According to him, “We have seen the worst phase of corruption in Nigeria. Femi Falana, my friend here, will speak about that because he has published a series of articles talking about what happened under the Buhari administration.
“They were not the ones who caused corruption but I think in the last administration, we saw the ugliest phase of corruption whether in moral terms, financial terms, and other terms.”
The former president prides himself as a corruption fighter and had declared war against graft as a policy thrust from the inception of his administration in 2015.
In his nation wide Address to mark Nigeria’s 62nd independence last year, Buhari said his administration has made appreciable progress in combating corruption, saying it’s one the legacy he was leaving behind.
“One of the areas where we have made significant progress is in the eradication of deeply entrenched corruption that permeates all facets of our national development.
“We strengthened the institutions for tackling corruption and also cultivated international support, which aided the repatriation of huge sums of money illegally kept outside the country.
“The increasing number of prosecutions and convictions, with associated refunds of large sums of money is still ongoing,” the ex-president stated.
But not a few Nigerians will agree with Kukah that the worst cases of corruption happened under his watch.
Buhari’s critics cite the case of a former Accountant General of the Federation, Ahmed Idris, who allegedly stole over N80 billion which he used in acquiring choice property in Kano and other places.
Though Idris has been charged to the court by the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission, EFCC, his case has been rightly described as one of the biggest heists in the country.
