Most Nigerian Politicians Are Drug Barons, Internet Scammers - Anambra Governor-elect, Soludo

Charles Soludo, the Anambra State governor-elect, has called for a new liberation movement in Africa and Nigeria.

According to him, this will promote selfless service among political leaders.

Soludo, an ex-governor of the Central Bank of Nigeria, who won the November 6, 2021 Anambra governorship election on the platform of the All Progressives Grand Alliance, spoke on Saturday.

He said politics had become a big business in Nigeria, adding that many drug barons and Internet scammers have flocked into politics to avoid being arrested.

He said, “Indeed, Africa needs a new liberation movement. The first struggle was liberation from the colonial masters. The second will be liberation from rentier politics and politicians. For me, there is almost a sense of nostalgia, recalling the mission and accomplishments of our founding fathers, especially as we contemplate the world without oil in Nigeria.

“Much of the existing social order is founded on competition for, and distribution of, rents. Oil and the easy money that came with it destroyed the social fabric and the elite created new institutions and political structures to maximise their gains. As the noose tightened globally on other rentier/criminal enterprises such as drug trafficking or internet scamming, many of the barons flocked into politics as the next easy alternative.

“Politics has become big business. Appointment or election into public office is seen largely as an opportunity to ‘eat’ rather than a call to selfless service. There is an army of rich (big men) who have never worked or done any productive work in their life and believe that it is their right to expect something for nothing.

“The tiny less than one per cent elite have a stranglehold on the public purse, sprinkling occasional crumbs to the citizens as ‘dividends of democracy’. The citizens themselves either out of helplessness or acquiescence join the party, expecting the politicians to dole out pittance out of public treasury as charity.”