President Umaru Yar’Adua on Thursday groaned about the growing level of corruption in the country, but expressed the preparedness of his government to sustain the battle against the plague.

His position came just as the Vice-President, Dr. Goodluck Jonathan, said that he was personally embarrassed during his recent visit to India because of the global perception of Nigeria as a corrupt country.

Jonathan, who represented Yar’Adua at the fifth anniversary of the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission, in Abuja, narrated his ordeal at the just concluded conference of India, which he said had made him to appreciate what ordinary Nigerians suffer abroad with the Nigerian passport.

He said, “Many people have told their stories about what they have to go through because they carry the Nigerian passport, and people think such experiences are not for the elite or those carrying diplomatic passports.


“Even me as a vice-president, with a diplomatic story, my recent experience in India would tell the story of the effect of corruption in Nigeria, because that was in the presence of heads of states and governments.”

Jonathan thereupon narrated the embarrassment he suffered through a story told by the South African President, Mr. Thabo Mbeki, to a group of world leaders of the time he spent in Nigeria in 1977, as representative of the African National Congress.

“He told the group of five heads of state about when he was in Nigeria in 1977, and the Nigerian government had promised to give them $250, 000 to help with their struggle. When after two months they did not get the money, he decided to go and meet the then Inspector-General of Police, who was the fifth highest ranking person in the military government.

“According to him, the IG told him how he himself had to wait for over six months to receive another vote of $20m for a different organisation, after some people had deposited the money into a fixed deposit account, and made away with the accruing interest.”

He added, “Mbeki claimed he was very frustrated and helpless at the experience; you can now understand why we are here today to commend the EFCC for the efforts towards redeeming the image of the country.”

The vice-president, who described the experience in India as sweet-bitter, noted that, “In just five years of operation, the EFCC has epitomised the government’s uncompromising stance against corruption in all its ramifications.”

He said the administration had demonstrated its commitment for zero-tolerance for corruption as a cardinal principle of governance, and enthronement of justice, rule of law and due process.

Speaking at the event, the acting Chairman of the EFCC, Mr. Ibrahim Lamorde, denied claims that there was “a cooling edge in the anti-corruption fight.”

According to him, “The business of anti-corruption policy making as well as its implementation is not a linear process with static goals in which professionals have the comfort of a prescribed outcome.

“The truth is that anti-corruption policies are principally intricate enterprises that straddle multiple institutions of the governance system, and embody a variety of actors with diverse and often varying and at times changing political objectives.”

Lamorde observed that corruption was the greatest challenge to progress across the country, adding that it had not only produced injustice and a chronic failure to effectively manage development aid, it had also led to squandering of the country’s human and natural resources.
http://www.punchng.com/Articl.aspx?theartic=Art200804111471996

President Umaru Yar’Adua on Thursday groaned about the growing level of corruption in the country, but expressed the preparedness of his government to sustain the battle against the plague.

His position came just as the Vice-President, Dr. Goodluck Jonathan, said that he was personally embarrassed during his recent visit to India because of the global perception of Nigeria as a corrupt country.
Jonathan, who represented Yar’Adua at the fifth anniversary of the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission, in Abuja, narrated his ordeal at the just concluded conference of India, which he said had made him to appreciate what ordinary Nigerians suffer abroad with the Nigerian passport.

He said, “Many people have told their stories about what they have to go through because they carry the Nigerian passport, and people think such experiences are not for the elite or those carrying diplomatic passports.


“Even me as a vice-president, with a diplomatic story, my recent experience in India would tell the story of the effect of corruption in Nigeria, because that was in the presence of heads of states and governments.”

Jonathan thereupon narrated the embarrassment he suffered through a story told by the South African President, Mr. Thabo Mbeki, to a group of world leaders of the time he spent in Nigeria in 1977, as representative of the African National Congress.

Na wa oo, One year into his stay in office and this is what he wants to feed us?? LMAO!!!