President Jonathan says he is more committed to the fight against corruption than any of his predecessors.
The president said unlike his predecessors, he had instituted reforms aimed at giving fillip to the anti-graft war.
Jonathan said this yesterday in a statement by his Senior Special Assistant on Public Affairs, Doyin Okupe, in reaction to the latest corruption perception index by Transparency International which rated Nigeria 136th.
“Unlike any previous administration in the country’s history, the present administration has instituted institutional reforms aimed at giving fillip to the anti-corruption war”, the statement said.
The statement argued that since Jonathan became president, the fight against corruption was taken several notches higher.
It also emphasised that the latest rating was a proof that the president’s effort in the fight against corruption was yielding positive results.
It said while it was important for suspects involved in corruption cases to be tried, and if found guilty, sent to jail, it was more important to develop mechanisms, institutions and the enactment of policies that would plug loopholes and foster transparency.
He said: “This is what the Jonathan administration has been doing and this is the template adopted by countries like Denmark and New Zealand, which are at the top of the TI index. Like New Zealand, the Jonathan administration is adroitly deploying Information and Communications Technology (ICT) to tackle corruption head on.”
Claiming that Nigeria is winning the anti-graft war, it said Jonathan would continue to ensure that the war was “totally” won in due course.
The statement said it might not be immediately apparent to those “who don’t understand the dynamics of applying creative techniques in up-turning an age-old habit that has cost this country a lot in terms of financial resources, but to those like the officials in Transparency International, knowledgeable in the nuances of fighting corruption, a lot of grounds have been covered.”
Continuing, the statement said: “One major area this fight has been visible is the agricultural sector where the administration’s carefully articulated and executed Agricultural Transformation Agenda ended forty years of corruption in the distribution of fertilisers to farmers.
“The same thing applies to the reforms in Ports where we have successfully plugged many loopholes which some corrupt officials had exploited to delay genuine business transactions and harm the Nigerian economy.”
