BY Taiwo George
President Goodluck Jonathan is of the opinion that Muhammadu Buhari, the presidential candidate of the All progressives Congress (APC) being touted as the man to fight corruption, lacks any idea of how to fight the menace.
Speaking in Enugu during the second day of his re-election campaign, Jonathan dismissed Buhari’s concept of tackling corruption as “archaic”.
“Their definition of corruption is so archaic. Most of you heard General Buhari when he read his declaration speech,” he said.
“He said that I was commending people for having private jets, that those who have private jets are corrupt. So if a Nigerian businessman has a private jet, he is corrupt and if a south African businessman has a private jet, he is working hard. If an European, American businessman have a private jet, its okay.
“If you have a good house, you’re corrupt, if you have a good car, you are corrupt. In a modern age where Nigerians are working every day and night, very very hard, other countries appreciate Nigerian businessmen and they say those who own private jet are corrupt, they have stolen money, that is their definition of corruption.
“Because somebody told you that Nigerians don’t want to hear the word corruption, then everywhere you go, you continue to sing that song and you say Goodluck must go because his government is corrupt, tell us how you are going to clean the corruption, you don’t even have an idea.
“They should go back and tell their consultant to coach them and when they come back and start campaigning tomorrow, I would listen to them.”
Jonathan, who admitted that he was being too personal, said he decided to go that length to prevent the opposition from misleading the younger generation.
“I don’t like to go too personal, but sometimes, circumstances demand that certain things must be made known to the young people,” he said.
“If all the Nigerian people who are voting are of my age, probably I wouldn’t have done this. They deceive us, they want to change the economy, but they are saying the same thing. They are telling young Nigerians we are changing the economy; they have not told us how.”
Reading from the inaugural speech of Ibrahim Babaginda, the former military head of state, who took over power from Buhari through a coup, Jonathan alleged that the economy of the country collapsed when Buhari was a military ruler because rather than focus on development, the APC presidential candidate got steeped in fighting people.
“You threw everybody into Kirikiri and the economy collapsed,” he said.
“Is Alex Ekueme a corrupt person? But he was jailed. Is Jim Nwobodo a corrupt person? But he was jailed for 301 years. You concocted stories against real and perceived enemies at that time and now you are saying Goodluck must go but you are bringing ideas of 1970 when this country did not even have colour television.
“They want to run the country as if we are in the medieval age, I don’t expect any president of this country to run this country as if he is in the medieval age, a president is not a medieval king.”
He said his administration has adopted the best means of tackling corruption, boasting that no government has succeeded in terms of fighting graft.
“There is no government that has fought corruption more than we have. Though they want me to look at some people who are perceived political enemies, lock them up, show them on television, celebrate it. It has not worked and it would not work,” he said.
“Armed robbery came into the country before the civil war. We were shooting people in pubic, government stopped that because it was too barbaric, but we are still shooting and armed robbery has not stopped.
“If you offend the state by getting money you should not, yes you must be punished and the best way to stop corruption is to use technologies.”
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