Former President Olusegun Obasanjo, on Sunday, labelled politicians in the country as “criminals-in-politics” who keep stealing the country’s wealth with impunity.
Obasanjo, a guest speaker at the opening service of Saviour’s Cathedral centenary celebration at African Church Saviour’s Cathedral, Agege, also tagged the nation a religious den of thieves and criminals.
The former president said the coinage was sourced from one of his friends whose name he did not give.
He kicked against the idea of politicising the anti-corruption war, saying it is only in Nigeria that someone would condemn a politician for stealing the commonwealth and such a patriotic duty would be termed politics.
“When I was in power, I worked with many politicians. Many of them are very good people, but the others are so shameless that devil is better than them.
“One of my friends once told me that Nigerian politicians are nicknamed CIP, meaning criminals-in-politics. Most of them say that they are religious, but the truth is that they are not even Christians.”
He urged the church not to give up, but to go all out to redeem the world and renew Nigeria through evangelism and proper upbringing of the children.
He encouraged Christians to go into politics and stop calling it a dirty game.
“Politics is not dirty, it is the people who play the game that are dirty. Christians should go into politics and make politics in Nigeria clean.” Obasanjo said.
