“You don’t need to shut down your economy in order to fight corruption.”

— Peter Obi.

“You cannot leave your economy to looters or else there’ll be no economy at all.”

— Yemi Osinbajo

These valid statements, in my mind, summarise the true state of the Nigerian situation, from which all our leaders should pick some valuable lessons.

Peter Obi is correct and a million times correct that a war against corruption need not lead to poverty of the people. America, Britain, Germany, etc, are fighting corruption, but not at the expense of economic growth. Take it or leave it, the way and manner of the war against corruption of this present administration has virtually crippled our economy.

Genuine investors and manufacturers are scared stiff, as all it takes is just for an opponent or competitor to rub you with the mud of corruption and you’re finished.

Let the government go back to the drawing board and fine tune and restrategise, in this area. Nigerians love the Buhari administration for its stance against corruption, Nigerians love Muhammadu Buhari and Yemi Osinbajo, for their unblemished character and sterling leadership qualities, but they need to work on the economy.

Professor Yemi Osinbajo is correct and ten million times right that no economy can flourish in the hands of looters; it just can’t work, as the end result will be mass poverty and a clique of aristocrats, as happened in these past years.

No matter the level of prosperity of a nation, if the leadership cannot face corruption squarely in the face and tackle it squarely and meaningfully, whatever gains the economy may record will be frittered away by the wicked kleptomaniacs.

So the lesson from both submissions is to find the appropriate means of fighting corruption by strengthening the institutions involved, namely the law enforcement agencies and the judiciary. Then gather a sound economic team to face the task of nation building, move away from deploying anti-corruption war to fight political battles and entrench sound professionalism in that regard.

Let the leadership face the task of governance squarely, and guide the professionals to fight the war against corruption purely in a professional style.

Kudos to John Momoh and his team for that great outing, which can be made more robust by including Omoyele Sowore and a few others.

God bless Nigeria.

•Ebun-olu Adegboruwa, Esq., erudite lawyer and activist, wrote from Lekki, Lagos.

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