President Goodluck Jonathan
The Presidency has reacted to comments credited to the National Chairman of the All Progressives Congress, John Odigie-Oyegun, where he stated that President Goodluck Jonathan’s tolerance for corruption is partially responsible for insecurity in the country.
Special Adviser to the President on Media and Publicity, Dr. Reuben Abati, in an interview with The Punch on Thursday described Odigie-Oyegun’s recent postulation as ‘unsubstantiated and frivolous,’ stressing that the remark only lend credence to the position of the Presidency that the opposition party is out to play politics with everything.
The presidential aide, who questioned whether corruption was also responsible for terrorism in other countries where insurgents were operating, said, “We have always made the point that the APC is and has been playing politics with everything. He is talking about corruption being responsible for terrorism and insurgency; that does not sound like an educated position. Is it corruption that is also responsible for terrorism in Syria, Afghanistan and Columbia? He is using a serious national challenge of terrorism to play politics, it is very cheap.
“The security forces are doing their best to put an end to terrorism and insurgency and nobody can doubt the fact that President Jonathan has shown great determination in combating the terrorists and ensuring the protection of lives and property. The APC chairman sounded in his statement as if he does not live in Nigeria, so he found it difficult to appreciate the efforts that are being put into the terrorism war,” Abati said.
While alleging that those who were swift to indict the Jonathan administration of condoning corruption were really the most corrupt Nigerians. Abati recalled that when the government wanted to deregulate the downstream sector of the petroleum industry in order to halt corruption, it was the APC chiefs who opposed the decision.
His words, “Most of those who comment about corruption are probably the most corrupt in this country. Should we ask him to do an assessment of the states that are run by the APC because it is not enough to just talk about body language and make some kind of spurious allegations? He wants to turn the issue of corruption into a campaign issue. He wants to use it to malign the integrity of the Presidency and the government. He does not sound convincing at all because if anything, this administration has combated corruption.
“I always give an example that the whole idea of the deregulation of the downstream sector was to check corruption in the downstream sector. Was it not Odigie-Oyegun and his bedfellows who opposed that effort by this government to deal with that issue? He has no moral basis to talk about corruption. In fact, they were the ones championing corruption in the downstream sector by insisting that government should not clean up the downstream sector,” Abati said.
Abati, who pointed out that that the ranking Nigeria got in the recent Transparency International (TI) index shows an improvement in the corruption fight, argued: “You may say that the quantum of the improvement is small but it has been noticed even by TI that something is being done to deal with the issue.”
DAILY POST recalls that the National Chairman of the All Progressives Congress, APC, Chief John Odigie-Oyegun, had earlier in the day alleged before newsmen that President Goodluck Jonathan’s tolerance for corruption was partially responsible for the nation’s security woes.
Asserting that that the setback being suffered by the military in the war against Boko Haram exemplifies “how the Peoples Democratic Party at the centre has allowed corruption to eat into the heart of our defense and security agencies,” Odigie-Oyegun said it was reprehensible for the present administration to be granting pardon to persons convicted of corruption and hobnobbing with corrupt individuals, instead of fighting the scourge.
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