ABUJA—The Presidency
said Monday that the current rating of the Transparency
International was not the fault of the present administration but due to
decades of endemic corruption in our polity.
Faulting claim by the Action Congress of Nigeria, ACN, which
placed the blame for rating of Nigeria as the 35th most corrupt nation, at the
door step of the President Goodluck Jonathan’s administration, Senior Special
Assistant to the President on Public Affairs, Dr Doyin Okupe said such claim
“is preposterous and lacking in credibility, and can only be best described as
pure political mischief.
He said, “Lai
Mohammed knows they, in the Action Congress, live in glass houses and
should not throw stones because his party is home to some of the most
notoriously corrupt Nigerians ever. He should not throw stones just to score
cheap political points. His party has no moral leg it can stand to pontificate
about corruption.
According to Okupe, “Nigerians are not fools and cannot be fooled
for too long that there is endemic corruption within the rank and file of his
party. It is an undeniable fact that corruption is a major challenge to the
nation and its people, and everyone agrees it is endemic and has been with us
for over three decades.
“Few days ago we spelt out details of commendable efforts of this
administration in fighting corruption and also confirming the demonstrable
political will of this administration to take up this onerous challenge.
Critics of this administration appear to be deliberately
undiscerning, confusing incidences of corrupt practices unraveled by this
administration and legal steps being taken by the administration as being
corrupt practice of the same administration.
Part of this mischief and attempt to bring opprobrium on this
administration was the assertion by President of the Campaign for Democracy,
CD, Dr Joe Okei-Odumakin. She said N5 trillion was stolen under Jonathan, and
that “the non-implementation of the Farouk Lawan report as well as the Nuhu
Ribadu Presidential Task Force findings has completely killed the fight against
corruption in Nigeria.”
The above calls to question her respect for facts because it
is a fact that the Lawan report has been handed over to the EFCC, and there are
ongoing prosecution deriving from this, while the President just set up a White
Paper committee on the Ribadu report. How do you implement a report without a
white Paper?.
We reiterate that the conclusion that N5 trillion was stolen under
President’s Jonathan’s watch is gross misinformation and absolute falsehood.
Nowhere in the Ribadu was that conclusion reached. It never happened, and it is
wholesomely untrue.
“We want to state categorically, for the umpteenth time that it
was this administration that exposed the oil subsidy scam, pension scam, and
also set up the Nuhu Ribadu committee to look into the rot in the oil
sector.
“We must state that the fight against corruption is not a short
boxing bout, but a long fight that will be systemic, strategic and
institutional. The role of the judiciary in bringing culprits to justice cannot
be underestimated in the war against corruption. No matter the Federal
Government’s commitment , the President has no power to jail any suspect by
presidential fiat. Therefore he should not be made a scape goat for the
failure of other arms of government who fail to judiciously discharge
their responsibilities. It is also not true that lack of funding is
stalling the fight as concluded by Chairman, Coalition Against Corruption, Debo
Adeniran. We must not forget what the EFCC chairman, Ibrahim
Lamorde said recently about how judges and lawyers stall trials of high profile
suspects. The two trials of James Ibori inNigeriaand theUnited Kingdomfully
underscore this point.
“The Federal Government, mindful of this judicial stumbling block,
has put together a bill to reform the criminal justice system, so that justice
will no longer be evaded through sundry abuses of court processes.
“We assure Nigerians that in spite of the persistent and
perplexing mischief of deceitful politicians, and some unpatriotic
Nigerians who never sees good in whatever government does, the administration
will continue its unrelenting fight to rid our society of this menace.
This is a war the President has set for himself and he has
demonstrated the will and capability to prosecute same.
Source: Vanguard
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