Ahmed Idris, Abuja.
The All Progressives Congress national leader, Asiwaju Bola Tinubu, on Thursday, chided the immediate past administration of Dr Goodluck Jonathan, saying it should be awarded a gold medal in corruption.
Delivering the keynote address at the presentation of the book: “Making Steady, Sustainable Progress – for Nigeria’s Peace and Prosperity’’, which took place at the State House Banquet Hall, Abuja, Tinubu regretted that key officials of the administration turned public treasury to private purse and robbed Nigerians with impunity.
“So much money grew feet and ran faster than Jamaican runner, 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 has become institutionalized,’’ he said.
According to him, should the government had remained in power, Boko Haram would have taken more territory and devoured more people.
He said that the “war on corruption has been won as President Buhari has set an axe to what he called, “the root of this dangerous tree.”
Tinibu noted that, “gone are the days when a minister can pilfer billions of dollars as easy as plucking a piece of candy from the table.’’
He said: “We have much to do to combat this disease. Not only must we track down the takers.
“In the long term, we must review the salaries of public servants and create universal credits for our people to reduce temptation.”
The APC chieftain said though Boko Haram had not been completely defeated, there is no question it had been decimated and made shorter and weaker.
He said the sect would never constitute the threat they once were.
“Had the previous government remained in place, Boko Haram would have surely eaten more territory and devoured more people.
“This nation might have been divided and cut asunder, not by choice but by the knife of terrorism.’’
