According to Punch newspaper, President Goodluck Jonathan began his re-election campaign in Lagos on Thursday, saying he would not fight corruption by arresting and putting people in crates.
Jonathan, in his 33-minute speech that centered more on responses to criticisms of his administration by some prominent Nigerians and the opposition, faulted a recent statement credited to the APC presidential candidate, Maj.Gen. Muhammadu Buhari, that he would send corrupt Nigerians to jail.
Although he did not mention names, he was indirectly making reference to Buhari’s role in the 1984 botched attempt to smuggle a former Transport minister, the late Umaru Dikko, to Nigeria.
He said, “They said they will start fighting corruption after they have crossed the bridge. And only two days ago, somebody stood in Port Harcourt, Rivers State and said he would catch people that steal and throw them in Kirikiri(Prisons).
“I agree that we must stop corruption but I will not do so by catching people and putting them in crates and jailing or killing them. We can’t stop corruption that way.”
The President told the PDP chiefs, members and supporters at the carnival-like event that held at the Tafawa Balewa Square in Lagos that “the same mouth says something from the right and the left, making contradictory statements.”
Raising his voice, he asked rhetorically.“ Can you trust such a man? Are they not deceiving you?
“They want power by all means. All they want to use power for is to lock up and imprison their enemies,” he claimed, eliciting thunderous applause from the gathering.
The President also said that if Buhari had effectively fought corruption between 1983 and 1985 when he was Head of State, Nigeria would not be grappling with graft today.
He argued that the kind of anti-graft war the APC presidential candidate was advocating had no place in today’s democracy.
The President said that instead of fighting corruption by making arrests, he would structure Nigeria in such a way that people holding public offices would no longer have direct access to funds.
Jonathan added that his administration had curbed corruption in the civil service and the agricultural sector through the computerisation of payment system.
The Punch reports that the President, however, explained that the system caused the delay in paying federal civil servants December salaries.
He said, “I apologise to those families that suffered because I believe that for you to fight corruption, you must take some measures such as establishing institutions. You don’t just wake up, enter the streets and start arresting people and showing them on television sets and saying you are fighting corruption.
“If they had succeeded in fighting corruption, corruption would not have been with us today. If they had set up structures to manage resources, in this ICT era, we would not have been talking about corruption today.
It is unfortunate to hear Jonathan say he cannot send people to jail for corruption. It just shows he has no plan to commit to helping Nigeria get the better of the menace. Just like at @JerryJohnson said above, every nation sends corrupt people to jail, when convicted. It is not a new thing. Your passion to make every corrupt person answer for his/her deeds and clean the streets of corruption would make you get them into crates if that is the only viable option! That is called passion for the good thing! It just shows this guy does not know what he is doing? He opens his mouth anyhow and without minding the circumference of his mouth talks like an uneducated parrot! He has said so many things in the past only to do the opposite. Simply lies! Anybody knows the world over that any new system is always never error proof so his new system of payment and cashiering, especially in Nigeria, would not be exempted in the first few years, I bet you. Meanwhile some people are eating fat on the people’s money… Habbah! This guy is fooling us, no, fooling himself. He has no plan. He has spent 6 years doing what…..? What magic is he going to do to transform things in the next 4 years? He is just talking politics and occupation of a seat for the fun of it. He has eaten enough. He has done enough. He should go back to the university and teach his zoology. After all that is better than building canoe that his parents did!
Even in abroad America, Britain, Canada people who steal government money goes to prison even in Germany most of the prominent people who fail to pay correct tax went to prison . Why is it that Nigeria president said he can not put anybody in prison for stealing government money is he clean too.