Jonathan Lacks The Political Willpower To Fight Corruption In Nigeria – Buhari

Former Head of State and presidential candidate in the 2011 election, General Muhammad Buhari has stated that the fight against corruption was beyond what President Goodluck Jonathan’s administration alone could handle.

The former Military General said this in a keynote lecture on ‘Stable Democracy and Nigeria’s Economy’ delivered at the Houses of Parliament in London on Tuesday night.

According to Buhari, the present government lacked the political will to fight the rampant corruption threatening the nation.

He also said that the Independent National Electoral Commission, INEC would not deliver on free and fair elections, and that INEC has a “cosy relationship with the executive and the judiciary.”

Buhari said that ahead of the 2011 elections, INEC requested and got N80 billion for elections and biometric data, but failed to avail aggrieved parties access to the data, just on the grounds of national security. He therefore said that only the opposition, if they are strong enough, could stop rigging in the country.

He affirmed that even though, there was the need to restructure the country, “the problem with Nigeria is not the structure but the process”. Buhari described the clamour for more states as “dysfunctional” and out of place.

 

To get out of poverty and socio-economic quagmire in the country, he said, the government should focus on agriculture and provide the sector with all the necessary assistance to return the country to agricultural boom and halt the continuous rural-urban migration.

Earlier, the chairperson of British African Development Programme, Lorraine Phelan, described Nigerians as hard working people who are blessed with wealth, yet living in poverty. She said it was time for Nigerians to start “asking questions and begin to take part in good governance. Nigeria must succeed.”

In her remarks, the hostess of the lecture, Diane Abbot, said Nigeria was key to Africa’s future, stressing that Nigeria’s failure would not just be a failure of Africa, but that of the black race as a whole.