The outspoken lawyer stated that “right now, we’re in trouble as a people” and urged the President and his administration to “show leadership”.
Femi Falana, SAN, a human rights attorney, has urged President Bola Tinubu to avoid sending the incorrect message because numerous prominent politicians who have been charged with looting have been visiting the Presidential Villa.
“Some of the people entering and leaving the Villa are being tried for robbing the nation’s treasury. Therefore, incorrect signals must not be transmitted to our nation’s citizens and the global community, the senior attorney remarked at Aare Afe Babalola’s 60th bar anniversary.
Falana said that “right now, we’re in trouble as a people” and urged the President and his administration to “show leadership.”
Several dignitaries, including the Ooni of Ife, Adeyeye Ogunwusi, and former Commonwealth Secretary-General Emeka Anyaoku, attended the occasion, including former President Olusegun Obasanjo.
If you were suspected of corruption and your case was before the EFCC or the ICPC, you would not be nominated to a position of responsibility,” Falana added, pointing to a man in the room who had previously served as our president. We must return to that time period.
The renowned Nigerian counsel called on the President to spearhead an anti-corruption campaign, citing First Lady Oluremi Tinubu’s comments at the 2023 Presidential Inauguration Interdenominational Church Service in May.
“God has blessed my family,” Mrs. Tinubu had stated. “To do the right thing, not to survive, we need not the wealth of Nigeria.”
As the country with the highest population of black people on the planet, Falana stated that Nigeria might “take its rightful place in the comity of nations” if the President led the charge against corruption.
He lamented the extent of corruption, which he said had taken on a “very dangerous dimension” in the nation.
He claims that the situation is such that high-ranking state officials steal funds intended for constructing hospitals while people are dying on the highways.
They “steal” funds intended for restoring the country’s forests, fighting erosion, and other environmental causes. Therefore, when a nation reaches that point, corruption is now considered a crime against humanity, he continued.
