Itse Sagay, professor of law and chairman of the Presidential Advisory Committee Against Corruption (PACAC), on Monday said Nigeria would have collapsed if Buhari had not intervened.
He said this after a presentation of the committee’s report on a new legal framework for fighting corruption.
“We know of some governors who are not supposed to be there, but found themselves on the bloody seats with the help of some judges,” he said.
“If Buhari had not come, I don’t think there would have been a country. Zimbabwe would have been better. The government is operating on a zero budget.
“We need the judiciary, but we need an upright judiciary. If we don’t have a judiciary with moral integrity, then we don’t have a democracy.
“No agency would have dared to arrest Oputa, Obaseki, Eso, and some others. They gave judgments against the military governments. The moral authority of the golden era of the supreme court has crashed.
“No judge should be guilty of corruption; if that happens then they have reduced themselves to our level, so they should take whatever happens. Let us be fair to this country.”
President Muhammadu Buhari set up the committee in August, 2015.
In the report, the committee recommended plea bargaining as an alternative means of settling corruption cases.