EFCC is a toothless bulldog, says Obasanjo ; insists Lack of moral values responsible for insecurity

Former President, Olusegun Obasanjo, has attributed the continuous rise in violence, extremism and insecurity in the country to the failure of homes, schools, churches and mosques in inculcating the right values in children.

Former President Olusegun Obasanjo today took a retrospective look at the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission, and concluded that the anti-graft agency has become a toothless bulldog after the exit of the pioneer chairman, Mallam Nuhu Ribadu

But Obasanjo said while the ex-EFCC boss handled the job so well, and people coined the saying that the the fear of Ribadu was the beginning of wisdom, the former president bemoaned the fate of the anti-graft agency, describing it as a toothless bulldog.
Looking in the direction of Ribadu, who was present at the birthday event, Obasanjo said:
“As all know when Nuhu Ribadu was handling the EFCC, he handled it in such a way that people coined the saying that the fear of Ribadu is the beginning of wisdom.
“And the thing you will ask is, how did we go down? How did we lose that, how did we, Nuhu Ribadu is still here, he is still alive, the institution that we started together is still there, what made the institution to become a toothless bull dog?”
Obasanjo emphasised the need to be serious as a nation, if the nation really wants to develop.
“We need to work things out so that we don’t take two steps forward, one step and three steps backward,” he said.

Obasanjo stated this in Abeokuta, Ogun State at the 2016 National Summit and 4th International Colloquium with the theme, “Human Security, Violent Extremism and Radicalisation, Seeking Sustainable Solutions” organised by the Centre for Human Security, as part of his 79th birthday celebration.

At the colloquium which took place at the Olusegun Obasanjo Presidential Library, the former president also told how his quest to find a solution to the issue of global insecurity made him spend two days with some members of the Taliban sect. The Taliban is a radical group of waging war against the Afghan government.

According to the former President, “if we do not get it right from home, we have started losing the battle. Communalism is going down the drain. There is a popular saying that four eyes brought a child to the world, and 200 eyes nurtured the child, but where is the 200 eyes of the community? Unless we are able to deal with present problems.
“We do everything with impunity. We have been dealing with issues beyond us. We ought to prevent it. Prevention is even cheaper than cure. Can we prevent? Can prevention be part or best of our solution?
“We can also see where things are going down. We have home or houses, what happened at home? What do we teach? Moral training, values start from home. Home is very important, but parents do many wrongs”.
He lamented that the international community was not doing enough in ensuring that democracy and good governance were effectively practiced in developing countries and called on them to be conscious of the need to ensure justice and fairness in tackling insecurity to ensure sustainable peace.
He cited some countries witnessing serious conflict and attributed it to injustice and negligence on the part of the international community.
“I went to Syria when I was President of Nigeria. One of the places I was taken to was a refugee camp, where those refugees have been since 1948, nothing has been done to them. How do you want their children to think.
“In Norway, I met some members of the Taliban, we spent two days together. They were in the second echelon of the leadership. I was told the top ones will not come out, and when we listened to them, we said yes, they can get something better than they were getting.”
He therefore urged the international community to rise up to the challenge posed by global insecurity, warning that their indifference poses serious consequences for innocent citizens.