Jonathan shared N150bn 2 weeks before 2015 elections - Osinbajo

Vice President, Yemi Osinbajo has said that the nature of corruption in the country is systematic and cannot be stamped out in one swoop, adding that this present administration has demonstrated enough political will to end it.

- Vice President, Yemi Osinbajo says the present administration of President Muhammadu Buhari has not completely dealt with corruption as it cannot be crushed at once

- Osinbajo also alleges that the government of former President Goodluck Jonathan “essentially shared” shared billions of Naira that could have been spent on projects

- The vice president also notes that the current administration with less revenue, has increased capital funding by 400 percent in power, works and housing, defence, transportation, agricultural sectors

Nigeria's Vice President, Yemi Osinbajo on Monday, March 19, said that the nature of corruption in the country is systematic and cannot be stamped out in one swoop, adding that this present administration has demonstrated enough political will to reverse it, Nigerian Tribune reports.

Osinbajo speaking at the 7th Presidential Quarterly Business Forum for private sector stakeholders at the presidential villa, Abuja, noted that there is grand corruption in public finance space.

He accused the administration of former President Goodluck Jonathan of frittering billions of naira that should have been spent on projects two weeks to the 2015 polls.

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The vice president assured Nigerians that where you have a president that is not corrupt, over 50 percent of financial problems will be solved.

Participants at the forum included ministers, other top government officials, members of the private sector, among others.

He said: “If we want to do an analysis in Nigeria, it is either fraudulent or ignorant if we do not bring money that belongs to corruption into the math.”

“This is what distinguishes in my own respectful view, this administration from the other. I can say that with what I have seen if you have a president who is not corrupt, 50 percent of your financial problems are over.

“This is what I have seen, I can demonstrate it with facts and figures.

“If the president is corrupt, the entire financial system is compromised and that is what we have seen with the figures we have just seen. That is absolutely important that we must take into account.

“I am not saying that corruption under this administration has been completely dealt with, no certainly not. Where corruption has become systematic such as we have in our country today, you cannot deal with it in one full swoop, it is not possible.

“In any event, you still have a lot of corruption fighting back. The system fights back and its both an internal and external fight back and you have to be steadfast and strategic to win the battle.

“There’s no way that you have a system such as ours that has consistently thrived on corruption and proceeds of corruption and public financing, in particular, that will give up and say, guys, the problem has been solved. No.

“It is a system that has fed on corruption and it affects all aspects of governance. So, trying to deal with it is certainly not a walk in the park.

“But I want to say that that task has already begun and that task is being done consistently and I believe that going forward in the next few years, no matter how we are criticized, if we stick to policy especially controlling excesses and corruption in public finance, this country will make the kind of progress that it deserves to make with all the resources at our disposal.

“If we stick to the policy of ensuring that as far as public finance is a concern, there is no impunity and that we hold people to account, I’m absolutely confident that this country has what it really takes to make the kind of progress we deserve to make as a nation.”

On the Jonathan administration withdrawing billions of naira on the eve of 2015 election and shared. He alleged: “In one single transaction a few weeks to the elections in 2015, sums of an N100million, $289 million were just fretted away by a few.

“When you consider that in 2014 as the minister of finance has said that oil price was an average of $110 a barrel and only N99 billion was spent on power, works and housing and when we talk about the economy we talk as if these are normal by every standard.

“Nobody should talk about the economy when you have this kind of huge leakages and huge corruption.

“We saw from the presentation of the minister of finance N14 billion was spent on agriculture in 2014, transportation N15 billion. So, the total spent on infrastructure in those three years were N153 billion and in two weeks before the elections, N150 billion was essentially shared.

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“So, if your total infrastructure spending is N150 billion and you can share N153 billion, that is completely incredible. That sort of thing doesn’t happen anywhere else in the world.

“And when we are talking about the economy, we must simply understand that that is the problem.

“Today, with less revenue, we have increased capital funding by 400% as the minister has said, in power, works and housing, in defence, transportation, agriculture.”

In a previous report by NAIJ.com, the 57 board members of three federal government agencies, including the National Boundary Commission, under the control of Professor Yemi Osinbajo, Nigeria’s vice president, will be inaugurated on Tuesday, March 20.

The two other agencies under Osinbajo are the National Institute for Policy and Strategic Studies (NIPSS) and Border Communities Development Agency (BCDA).

Source: Naija.ng