By Suleiman Idris, Abuja
Bola Tinubu, National Leader of the All Progressive Congress (APC), has said the government of former President Goodluck Jonathan won a gold medal in corruption.
“So much money grew feet and ran away faster than Usain Bolt ever could. That which could have been spent on national development was squandered in ways that would cause the devil to blush,” Tinubu said on Thursday in Abuja while giving a keynote speech at the presentation of ‘Making Steady, Sustainable Progressive for Nigeria’s Peace and Prosperity: A mid-term scorecard on the President Muhammadu Buhari Administration’.
He said Boko Haram would have taken more territory and more lives would have been lost to insurgency if Jonathan had remained in power.
“The prior government used the public treasury as a private hedge fund or a charity that limited its giving only to themselves,” he said.
“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 corruption l, they won the gold medal.
“It was not that our institutions had become infected by corruption. Corruption has become institutionalized.”
Tinubu said the war on corruption has been won as President Buhari has set an axe to “the root of this dangerous tree”.
“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,” he added.
