Although the President Muhammadu Buhari government has not publicly admitted a direct investigation of his predecessor for corruption, the latter thinks he is under probe.
Erstwhile President Goodluck Jonathan declared yesterday: “Of course obviously, we’ve been investigated, and I’m being investigated.”
Insisting that his successor should be allowed to do his work, Jonathan said: “After all these investigations, the whole stories will be properly chronicled. I’ve just left office, and I should allow the president and his team to do what they believe is good for the country.”
Many aides and associates of the former president are under investigation with many of them currently in detention by the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC) for $2.1billion meant for the procurement of arms for the fight against the Boko Haram insurgency in the North Eastern part of the country with some Nigerians calling for Jonathan to be investigated as well.
But contrary to the perception in some quarters that the administration of Jonathan was abjectly corrupt and inept, the former leader said his government took many steps to curtail graft in the areas of finance, agriculture and petroleum.
In his speech, Jonathan said beyond job creation, Nigeria like other developing countries, faced the challenge of corruption, which is a stumbling block to the development of nations.
On how his government tackled corruption, Jonathan said: “I think it is important to let you know my administration took many steps to curtail this scourge, in the areas of finance, agriculture and petroleum.
“To take just one example, we drastically reduced corruption in the agricultural sector with the help of a simple mobile phone.
We achieved this by providing an e-wallet to farmers, which grew the percentage of registered farmers receiving subsidy from 11 per cent to 94 per cent. And in the process we were also able to save billions of naira in fertiliser subsidies.
“Through our Agricultural Transformation Agenda, we greatly boosted food production and saved almost a trillion of naira on food imports.
“This one initiative had the benefits of improving food security, creating more jobs and reducing inflation to its lowest levels in over five years.”
He also explained that the ambition of his government was to check the corruption in petroleum subsidies by completely deregulating the sector but lamented that unhealthy political resistance frustrated the efforts.
“Consolidating democracy and the effective war against graft should be the collective responsibility of all citizens,” he said.
He acknowledged that there had been corruption right from the country’s independence but defended his administration’s anti-graft war.
“I cannot say the country from the beginning of our independence, that there was no corruption, yes there has been corruption. I did very well also, to curtail corruption,” he said.
Explaining how he approached the fight against corruption, Jonathan said: “My approach to corruption, was ‘don’t make money available for anyone to touch.’
While he expressed commitment to good governance, effective stewardship and transparency, the former president insisted that for Nigeria to further develop, it needs peace, freedom and unity, saying: “These values need to be deeply, strongly and irreversibly entrenched in Nigeria for all time. For this to happen, it is imperative for both the executive and the legislative arms of government to institute a Bill of Rights.”
He said: “Such a Bill of Rights will end discrimination and tribalism, and promote equality, enabling everyone to work towards the common goal for the development of the nation.
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