Fighting corruption isn't as difficult as being portrayed - Peter Obi

The 2023 Labour Party presidential candidate, Peter Obi, has said that tackling corruption in Nigeria is far less difficult than it is often made out to be.

Speaking during a talk show on youth and leadership opportunities with students of Abubakar Tafawa Balewa University (ATBU), Bauchi, on Friday, August 8, 2025, Obi stressed that personal integrity at the top can drastically cut corruption levels.

“We are talking about corruption, but let me tell you, fighting corruption is not as difficult as people make it look,” he said. “If you, your wife and children are not stealing, you have reduced corruption by 60 per cent.”

Obi recalled his past leadership roles, citing them as proof of his anti-corruption stance.

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“I’ve served as chairman of a bank at a time when most people who were directors of banks were busy taking loans from their banks. Go and check any bank where I was a director or chairman, where that bank gave me a loan as a director.

"Go and check whether there was anything missing while I was there. I served as governor of a state for eight years and I challenge everybody to go and show me where one kobo of Anambra State that I’m not entitled to was linked to me.”

He argued that corruption could be addressed decisively, pledging that if elected president in 2027, he would serve only one term.

“If I have the opportunity to serve as Nigeria’s president in 2027, I will do so for only four years. It can be less, but it will never be more. I will not stay a day longer than four years. People say ‘What can you do in four years?’

"There is a lot you can do in four years because you can bring civility and laws that start good governance in four years,” he added.

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