President Goodluck Jonathan
President Goodluck Jonathan on Monday again admitted that corruption was currently pervading the nation’s system.
He however said the reports of the menace were being exaggerated.
Jonathan spoke at the presidential power
reform transactions signing ceremony held at the Banquet Hall of the
Presidential Villa, Abuja, barely three days after the United States
government indicted the Federal Government of massive and widespread
corruption.
According to the US Department of
State’s report, government officials and agencies frequently engaged in
corrupt practices with impunity.
This was contained in the Bureau of
Democracy, Human Rights and Labour Country Reports on Human Rights
Practices for 2012, which was released on Friday.
In the report, the judiciary and security agencies, especially the police, were said to be lacking in transparency.
But Jonathan insisted that although there were cases of corruption in the country, the menace was being “over-amplified.”
The President said, “Let me continue to
assure Nigerians that yes, there are issues of corruption in this
country but somehow it has been over amplified.
“People should watch how we have been
conducting government business. We have been bringing down the issues of
corruption gradually.
“If you look at the fertiliser sector,
you will agree with me that if government actors are interested, we
would have continued the same story of buying all kinds of things,
awarding all kinds of contracts in the name of fertiliser. But we are
not doing that, we have sanitised that sector.
“Look at the power sector, when we
started initially there were stories in the papers but at the end, even
when I was in the US, companies from there that participated said
publicly that the process was transparent and issues of corruption was
not there.
“At least, today we have also heard
directly, that the process was transparent and that there were no issues
of manipulations or corruptions.”
Jonathan said his administration was committed to ensuring that the right things were done in the interest of the country.
“I plead with Nigerians that the country
belongs to all of us and we will all protect what belongs to us, what
belongs to our children and what belongs to the generation yet unborn.
We are committed to doing our best for this country God willing, we will
succeed,” he said.
On the signing of the power
transactions, the President told Nigerians that his government cared for
them and that he would not rest until he fixed the nation’s power
sector.
PUNCH
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