Former Governor of the Central Bank of Nigeria, Muhammadu Sanusi, said that the appointment of unqualified persons to public office was the root cause of corruption in the country.
Mr Sanusi said this Friday at a webinar event organized by the Emmanuel Chapel, Punch newspaper reported.
Mr Sanusi, who was deposed as Emir of Kano in March, said that giving employment to people on the basis of personal loyalty, friendship and who know who, rather than competence, would lead Nigeria nowhere.
Critics accused President Muhammadu Buhari of nepotism, particularly when appointing government officials and heads of security agencies, claiming that he did not observe the concept of the Federal Character of equality among other ethnic groups in appointments.
The concept of federal character was adopted in the Nigerian Constitution in 1979 to ensure that appointments to public service institutions represent the cultural, ethnic , religious and geographical diversity of the country.
Mr Sanusi said, “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.”
