Tinubu: Jonathan’s govt won gold medal in corruption

National leader of the ruling All Progressives Congress, Ahmed Bola Tinubu, said former President Goodluck Jonathan’s government earned a red card in governance but won the gold medal in corruption.

The former governor of Lagos State, who unveiled the titled “Making Steady, Sustainable Progress for Nigeria’s Peace and Prosperity” written by the Presidential Media Team in Abuja, said Jonathan’s government used the public treasury “as a private hedge fund or a charity that limited its giving only to themselves.”

He stated: “So much money grew feet and ran away faster than Usain Bolt ever could. That which could have been spent on national development was squandered in ways that would cause the devil to blush.

“One minister and her rogues’ gallery picked the pocket of this nation for billions of dollars. While poor at governance, these people could give a master thief lessons in the sleight of hand. In governance, they earned a red card but in the corruption, they won the gold medal. It was not that our institutions had become infected by corruption. Corruption had become institutionalized.”

Tinubu said though President Muhammadu Buhari’s administration’s anti-graft war was not yet won, had set an axe to the root of corruption.

“I would be lying if I say the war against large-scale corruption has been won. It has not. It will take time and countless swings of the axe to fall such a deeply rooted tree. But try we must. This is what the president is doing.

“Gone are the times when a minister can pilfer billions of dollars as easy as plucking a piece of candy from the table,” he stated.

Tinubu noted that President Buhari’s administration had much to do to combat corruption.

He said apart from tracking down “the takers”, the president must “review the salaries of public servants and create universal credits for our people to reduce temptation.”

He affirmed that Buhari, unlike his predecessor, had demonstrated the will to walk this path.

Tinubu said if he were an architect, he would say that Buhari had used the last two years to wisely lay the deep and wide foundation for a new building called a better Nigeria.

He, however, implored the president to do more, noting that many Nigerians were suffering.

“Through no fault of their own, too many of our people are without. Too many parents cannot properly feed and clothe their precious children, too many young adults exist in the void of joblessness, and too many of us do not have the resources to care for elderly parents who once cared for them. We must cure these wrongs.

“Today, as I stand before you all, I implore him and his government. The good you have started, do it the more. The good that you have yet to achieve, get to it with a laser-like focus.