President
Goodluck Jonathan yesterday said the corruption in the country is exaggerated.
The
president spoke in Cape Town, South Africa, while addressing the Nigerian
community in the town.
He is
on official visit to South Africa.
Jonathan
said: “Those who talk about corruption are the most corrupt, we must build
strong institutions. Putting heads together along with the heads of the
corruption agencies like the EFCC and the ICPC, that what we should do because
the perception is so bad and sometimes we also amplify it.
“Sometimes
when you look at the figures, somebody comes out with a figure and if you don’t
confront it, the recent statistics about funds being moved out of the country
is so big and we started asking why is it so and we also realised that there if
this policy of regulating the movement of money, and business people like Peter
Obi will tell you that the Anambra man will not want to wait; he wants to move
his money and go and buy. He did not steal the money. If you ask him to be
transferring $10,000 to China, how long will it take him to do that? And so
they will find a way of taking the money out and because it is not the
conventional way of transferring the money, it all ends up as if all is for
corruption. There is element of corruption; I am not saying there is none. In
Nigeria now, anybody who wakes up and does not talk about corruption you have
not said anything. If somebody is preaching, you must talk about corruption; if
you are in wedding, you have to talk about corruption.
“So the
perception index is quite high but we all collectively must work to reduce it.
I am not saying there is no corruption; there is still some corruption in the
country, but we must all work very hard and strengthen the institution to bring
the corruption down. And also the issue of security and crime, one of us
mentioned the issue of Boko Haram in some parts of the North. We have
kidnapping in the Southsouth and the Southeast. This must stop. We will do
everything to bring it to an end.
“But
for our brothers and sisters in South Africa, we thank you for this beautiful
evening and I must thank you for the wonderful work you are doing. We are doing
very well and I want to encourage you to continue to do very well.
“For
those who won scholarships, I just want to inform you that we have different
products, not just from the Federal Government, Nigeria is a Federal system,
the states are semi-autonomous sub national governments and a number of states
are also having some scholarship programmes. Sometimes, the states have
bursaries, sometimes scholarships. At the federal level, the population of this
country is very high, it will be extremely difficult or impossible for you to
now declare scholarship for every Nigerian that is schooling; yes we will get
to that point, but for now we have selected products and for some of you who
are quite good with what is happening in the world, all that we can advise is
that always try to get the information and when it comes up, you apply.
“We
give scholarships but it is not generalised that by this time of the year we
are giving scholarships across the whole group. But wherever you are, like the
minister was talking about Diaspora students, students’ schools are all over
the world and students are always Diaspora population. But I assure you that we
will continue to work with you, we have our country at heart, we have the
commitment and the political will to improve the fortunes of our country. “
The Nation
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