Nigeria  is plagued by many corrupt individuals both at the higher and lower rungs of life, former chairman of Independent Corrupt Practices and Other Related Offences Commission, (ICPC), Justice Mustapha Akanbi has said.

Akanbi made this assertion  in Ilorin, the Kwara state capital at the launch of a book entitled, "Appreciating Criminal Law in Nigeria" written by a journalist-turned lawyer, Ifeolu Koni.

The renowned jurist bemoaned the pervasiveness of corruption in the country, stressing the need for legal practitioners in the country to enlist in the vanguard to fight corruption by churning out books that could prick the conscience of corrupt Nigerians.

He added that ,"nobody can single-handedly fight corruption in Nigeria, but lawyers and judges through book writing."

"We all have to fight corruption with our efforts and with the books we write.  If we are able to come up as a body to fight those who plunder the wealth of this country, then we would have done a great thing for posterity."

He urged Nigerians to imbibe the culture of voracious reading, saying reading is the antidote to the country's transformation.

"Education, reading book is very important.  I sleep and wake up with books.   When you are called upon to read, if you are a good reader, if you believe in reading, you do not have to look elsewhere. The ideas will come.  You have a lot to talk about.
"The author is here because of reading.

I want us to have positive changes in this country, the type of changes that will improve the quality of life and professionalism in this country.    It is not easy to produce a chapter of a book," Akanbi stated.

AlsoI speaking at the event, the Grand Khadi of the Kwara state Sharia Court of Appeal, Justice Idris  Haroon, said that, "reading is the mother of all knowledge."