Chairman of the Presidential Advisory Committee on the war against corruption, Prof. Itse Sagay, on Thursday, stated that Nigeria would have become a failed state and disintegrated if former President Goodluck Jonathan had won the 2015 presidential election

While expressing his displeasure at the level of corruption in Nigeria under Jonathan, Sagay said that the country would have faced serious economic disaster if President Muhammadu Buhari hadn’t won the election.

Sagay stated this at the anti-corruption summit organized by the Open Society Initiative for West Africa (OSIWA) in conjunction with One Africa to brainstorm on issues ahead of the May 12 global anti-corruption summit in London.

“Given the unrestrained stealing and the enormous economic pillage under the Jonathan administration, it is not surprise that the Nigerian economy is lying prostrate. The present administration needs time to fill in the big holes that were left by the previous administration.”

“It is, therefore, irrational for anybody with perverse mentality to say that they should bring back corruption. The truth is, if Jonathan had won the 2015 election, by now, Nigeria would have completely become a failed state like Zimbabwe with huge inflation rate of N10 billion, or probably all of us would have carried our little belongings to seek refuge in neighbouring countries.”

“Nigeria would have witnessed a ferocious economic disaster if Buhari administration had not emerged. All that is going on now is the rebuilding process of the economy that was so destroyed by the previous administration. Those praying for the return of Jonathan should thank God for not answering their prayers because it would have been a terrible nightmare.”

“We must be patient and rational in our thinking for the inevitable change of the Buhari administration to come. It will surely come, but it is not a magic wand.”

Mazi Emeka