Known looters shouldn’t rule Nigeria, says Bode George

Speaking during a media interaction in his Lagos office, George also denied nursing any presidential ambition, noting that age is no longer on his side.

He said: “There is time for everything. By 2023, I will be 78 years old. All the energy required to run around for campaign and run Villa affairs will no longer be there.

“But I still have clear thoughts in my head; my brain is still sharp, and I have said it before that by 2023, I will stop partisan politics and remain neutral until I die.

“But if I see things that are not right, I will talk.”

George also said that every qualified citizen has the right to aspire to any leadership position in a true, genuine and democratic order.

However, he noted, “It is also incumbent upon the rest of us as citizens of this nation to inquire, to scrutinize, to investigate, to examine in totality the qualities of those who seek our mandate.

“It is our inalienable right to examine the pedigree of all the aspirants. What are their antecedents? What are their educational backgrounds?

“What is their family provenance? Who are their friends? What do they hold as defining valuable doctrine? What is their mission and vision?

“What is the source of their wealth? Are they legitimate tycoons with visible investments or they are mere mercenary buccaneers with their eyes greedily set on looting our commonwealth?

“These are legitimate enquiries we must all make to ensure that well-known looters, criminally-minded nepotistic agents are never allowed to preside over our nation.

“We know those who have blatantly looted some states. We know those who have reduced the wealth of some hapless states into an obscene private appropriation.

“We know the recklessly greedy who have turned governance into a family affair, sharing the wealth of the people among themselves, their acolytes and their unconscionable friends.

“Is it not fair and just that we the people must ensure that our future and the future of unborn generations are not mortgaged by our silence in the face of injustice?

“Do I have a prejudice against anyone? No. Am I biased against a particular aspirant? No.

“Am I waging a personal vendetta against anyone’s ambition? Again, no.”