According to reports from PM News, Former President of Nigeria, Gen Olusegun Obasanjo, expressed his concern about the level of corruption in Africa while speaking at the opening ceremony of the First International Conference of the African Studies Association of Africa held on Wednesday, October 14, in Ibadan, Oyo state.

The Conference is Tagged "African Studies in the Twenty-First Century: Past, Present and Future". It is a-three-day conference and it is reported that prominent scholars and academicians are in attendance. the event that was hosted by the Institute of African Studies, University of Ibadan.

The Former President in his speech stressed that one of the main challenges for the African continent was corruption, and urged African nations to rise up and defeat it.

He went ahead to stress that corruption destroys the deep moral fabric of the African society. According to him, stealing from the community is a grave offence that puts permanent dent on the integrity and values of the family.

His words;

“But today, the corrupt is venerated. The impression that Africans have a cultural disposition to be corrupt is a travesty of the truth. We are hospitable but hospitality is different corruption,”

Obasanjo also recollected the cold war that made things worse for Africa and hindered development on the continent as the Europeans used Africans as slaves.

“We got loans, some dubious, others used to acquire weapons and we ended up in debt and instability that gave us only more pains, coups and counter-coups and bad governance. Some of the worst dictators in the world emerged from Africa with the full endorsement and encouragement of outside influence."

“I wish we do not have to dig into the misery and pains of the past, but history cannot be changed. What we must do is to forge a new front and achieve better output today as we write the history for tomorrow. Yesterday is gone but tomorrow is yet to come and the knowledge and understanding of yesterday can make us chart a better course for tomorrow, hence a great history,” he said.

According to This Day, Obasanjo further noted that Africa was fast moving out of bad governance and corruption, shunning human rights violations.

“Vices which were commonplace during the reckless years of authoritarian regimes in Africa have significantly reduced. The right to free speech, the right to express a different view point, the right to draw personal conclusions based on self-instituted research and to query certain cultural practices and beliefs are part of the huge liberty that the continent of Africa now boasts of,” he stated.

Speaking about the future of African studies, Obasanjo noted that the success of the studies is connected with the intellectual, philosophical, ideological and institutional transformation that is taking place in various socio-cultural and political systems in different countries.

“African studies should not be satisfied with merely contributing to the accumulation of knowledge about Africa. Scholars should have novel priority which should slant towards indigenous-based tradition of knowledge. In line with the necessity of making African studies a wider project, African scholars should not be satisfied with merely contributing knowledge that is capitalised on and managed by the West,” he said.

http://www.chuzzyblog.com/2015/10/olusegun-obasanjo-speaks-on-corruption.html

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lalasticlala

Baba has spoken

Abeg, what moral justification does he have 2 speak on such a topic