Corruption has long history in Nigeria

Sir Ahmadu Bello, the Sardauna of Sokoto, was accused in 1943 by his own cousin Alhaji Abubakar Siddique of misappropriating tax revenue as District Head of Gusau. Mr E. O. Eyo the then NCNC chief whip in the Eastern Nigerian House of Assembly and who had a political disagreement with Zik moved a motion in  the Eastern House of Assembly asking for an impartial enquiry into the 2 million pounds invested by Eastern Development Corporation into African Continental Bank when the bank started losing money and Zik was the Premier Eastern Region.
A panel of enquiry was set up and Zik’s conduct was found improper. In 1962, Chief Obafemi Awolowo, who was then leader of the opposition at the federal level was accused by his political opponent of diverting Western Region Government funds to his party.
An inquiry was  subsequently set up under Mr. Justice George Coker which found the accusation to be true.
In his lecture, Prof. Jibril said “corruption and public morality seem to be at the nadir in Nigeria today, we seem to have reached the stage when, if we lived in ancient times God used to destroy nations that were beyond redemption in their moral transgressions, we would have been more than ripe for total destruction”
He also said “the term Nigerian factor, a term which appeared to have found its way into public discourse in Nigeria when the then Vice-President of the republic Admiral Augustus used it publicly in the late 1980s, has come to mean, unfortunately, corruption, nepotism, dishonesty, fraud and anything that is negative in our national life. Our lack of patriotism in tagging anything negative as Nigerian has even surpassed that of the Irish in the 18th century”
Prof. Jibril pointed out that corruption, and dishonesty are rampant in today’s Nigeria, but they are neither Nigerian inventions nor exclusively Nigerian. “They are universal tendencies that have always existed in every land and clime but the cause for worry is the degree to which they are practiced by Nigerian and our openness and discretion in doing so”
He said so unashamed are we of that we have elevated the plastic bag which is used to carry large sum of bribe money, and which in Europe, is used to carry clothes for laundry, to status of a national symbol of corruption and christened it Ghana Must Go Bag or GMG for short”
He lamented that “Nigeria has gained notoriety in these negative tendencies because of the aggressive activities of a negligible but prominent minority, this is no reason why we should acquiesce in giving our country a bad name in order to discredit it.
It can be argued that what can be legitimately termed the “ Nigerian factor” are qualities such as resilience, doggedness, fearlessness, outspokenness, pursuit of excellence, national pride, integrity and incorruptibility”
Suggesting the way forward, Prof Jibril said “in order to avoid the total collapse of the Nigerian state which corruption is accelerating, all patriots must come together and fight it, for if we fail to do so the inevitable anarchy that will follow will consume us all.”
He further suggested the “repatriation of Nigerian looted funds from foreign countries, estimated to be in region of $100 million, which should be to liquidate the debt and improve infrastructure nationally and also create employment for our people”
Also speaking, Mrs Sheila Solarin, wife of the late Dr Tai Solarin said “every Nigerian that is 50years and above owe the younger generation an apology for not working hard enough to make Nigeria a country they will be proud of. We are so sorry”.