The ex Emir of Kano and ex-Governor of the Central Bank of Nigeria, Muhammad Sanusi has come out to say that nepotism is the most terrible kind of corruption in Nigeria.
He recently revealed that corruption will continue to hinder the development of the country if nepotism keeps existing in the system.
According to him, Nigerians must learn to accept merit because incompetence is part of the nation’s problems.
He added that even if we have a system called Federal Character in the country, every Nigerian who occupies a public position must be competent enough to do his or her job.
His words, “Morally and religiously speaking, corruption is a problem. But let us look at it from the angle of economics and we (would) begin to understand that it is not just the corruption itself but the type of corruption.
“Part of the problem we have is incompetence and that is why I keep saying we must pay attention to merit. We have a system called Federal Character and I believe we should have Nigerians from all over the country in public office, but all those Nigerians must be people that are competent. There must be a merit test; a competence test.
“For me, I think the root of corruption is when we begin to de-emphasise merit, competence and performance and so long as we don’t bring the best in this country to do the job and hold them to account, we won’t go anywhere.
“The worst form of corruption we have in this country is nepotism; when people get into positions by virtue of personal loyalty, friendship and who they know, rather than what they can actually deliver by virtue of their competence for that office. We need people who can deliver for this country, I mean the majority.”
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