Jonathan Lacks The Political Willpower To Fight Corruption In Nigeria – Buhari

Former Head of State and presidential
candidate in the 2011 election, General
Muhammad Buhari has stated that the fight
against corruption was beyond what
President Goodluck Jonathan’s administration
alone could handle.
The former Military General said this in a keynote
lecture on ‘Stable Democracy and Nigeria’s
Economy’ delivered at the Houses of Parliament in
London on Tuesday night.
According to Buhari, the present government lacked
the political will to fight the rampant corruption
threatening the nation.
He also said that the Independent National Electoral
Commission, INEC would not deliver on free and
fair elections, and that INEC has a “cosy
relationship with the executive and the judiciary.”
Buhari said that ahead of the 2011 elections, INEC
requested and got N80 billion for elections and
biometric data, but failed to avail aggrieved parties
access to the data, just on the grounds of national
security. He therefore said that only the opposition,
if they are strong enough, could stop rigging in the
country.
He affirmed that even though, there was the need
to restructure the country, “the problem with
Nigeria is not the structure but the process”. Buhari
described the clamour for more states as
“dysfunctional” and out of place.
To get out of poverty and socio-economic quagmire
in the country, he said, the government should
focus on agriculture and provide the sector with all
the necessary assistance to return the country to
agricultural boom and halt the continuous rural-
urban migration.
Earlier, the chairperson of British African
Development Programme, Lorraine Phelan,
described Nigerians as hard working people who
are blessed with wealth, yet living in poverty. She
said it was time for Nigerians to start “asking
questions and begin to take part in good
governance. Nigeria must succeed.”
In her remarks, the hostess of the lecture, Diane
Abbot, said Nigeria was key to Africa’s future,
stressing that Nigeria’s failure would not just be a
failure of Africa, but that of the black race as a
whole.