In our series of viewpoints from African journalists, Sola Odunfa considers the possibility that Nigeria's corrupt officials may need psychiatric help.
I was settling down to write this letter when a back-page column in the Punch newspaper seized my attention. The Punch is a daily published in Lagos but its distribution spans the length and breadth of Nigeria, and it claims to be "the most widely read newspaper".
We have observed people amassing public wealth to a point of madness or some form of obsessive or compulsive psychiatric disorder
EFCC's Farida Waziri
The columnist in that issue dealt with the well-flogged subject of corruption in the country.
I had thought that there was hardly anything more to say about the brazen ravage of the Nigerian treasury by public officers and officials but this columnist brought a fresh insight into the subject.
Obsessive, compulsive
That insight was provided by the executive chairman of Nigeria's Economic and Financial Crimes Commission Farida Waziri in a public lecture.
Her statement bears quoting verbatim: "The extent of aggrandisement and gluttonous accumulation of wealth that I have observed suggests to me that some people are psychologically unsuitable for public office.
I was settling down to write this letter when a back-page column in the Punch newspaper seized my attention. The Punch is a daily published in Lagos but its distribution spans the length and breadth of Nigeria, and it claims to be "the most widely read newspaper".
We have observed people amassing public wealth to a point of madness or some form of obsessive or compulsive psychiatric disorder
EFCC's Farida Waziri
The columnist in that issue dealt with the well-flogged subject of corruption in the country.
I had thought that there was hardly anything more to say about the brazen ravage of the Nigerian treasury by public officers and officials but this columnist brought a fresh insight into the subject.
Obsessive, compulsive
That insight was provided by the executive chairman of Nigeria's Economic and Financial Crimes Commission Farida Waziri in a public lecture.
Her statement bears quoting verbatim: "The extent of aggrandisement and gluttonous accumulation of wealth that I have observed suggests to me that some people are psychologically unsuitable for public office.
