GRAFT: Ex-EFCC boss Waziri says Nigerian politicians sick in the head

Former Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC) Chairman, Mrs. Farida Waziri, has decried the level of corruption among Nigerian politicians who own properties all over the world and said there was need to run psychiatric test on them to ascertain their normalcy.

According to the former EFCC boss, there is need for the Federal Government to make it mandatory that all politicians undertake psychiatric test before occupying any office.

Mrs. Waziri, who was EFCC chairman from 2008 to 2011, stated this in Abuja while delivering a speech at the inauguration of the Nigerian Women Against Corruption project, put together by the EFCC and the wife of the President, Aisha Buhari.

“I sit down sometimes and wonder what corrupt Nigerians are thinking of. Somebody gets a big position and thinks he needs a big house in the United States and then jets off to buy a mansion. He comes back and then wants a house in Europe. He jets off to the UK to buy one and then thinks of the UAE, he jets off to Dubai and buys one and he is not satisfied.

“He then jets off to South Africa to buy one. I went to Pretoria and I was taken to a street which was vacated by De Boers, the white farmers who had left South Africa and I was shown houses owned by Nigerians. They looked like cathedrals to me in fact.

Read also: You’re irresponsible to say I frustrated anti-graft war, Waziri tells Ribadu

“They looked like haunted houses and when these Nigerians travel to South Africa, they can’t stay there so they lodge in hotels. So, what is the aim? What goes on in their minds? And that is why I said that before the government employs anyone to positions of authority, let them be medically examined. They need psychiatric tests,” Waziri said.

Waziri was recently accused by her predecessor, Nuhu Ribadu, of being among Nigerians that frustrated the ant-graft war, saying that she “inflicted serious damages on the EFCC from which the commission is still struggling to recover”.

Ribadu had claimed that the appointment of Waziri as EFCC Chairman saw Nigeria witness widespread corrupt practices that were unheard of in the anti-graft agency and outside the agency, adding that lawyers were brought in to handle very important cases that sometimes were turned into avenues for money making.

She however refuted this allegation, describing it as lies, and cautioned Ribadu to stop using her name to seek for public attention or sympathy.

 

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