“We shall definitely not celebrate corruption. We shall very soon set up a structure that will not allow government office holders to have direct access to funds that belong to the State called Nigeria,” Jonathan said at a meeting of the Nigeria Inter-Religious Council (NIREC) in Ilorin, the capital of Kwara State.
Civil society groups say corruption is rife among government officials in Nigeria and as a result, the country’s oil wealth has not benefited the majority of the people who remain poor.
The Nigerian leader, who has made the fight against corruption one of his major objectives, reiterated his government’s determination to combat graft but also warned that government officials were not the only perpetrators.
“If we all think that corruption starts and ends with political office holders, we will tackle it from a wrong side. But as a government, we shall tackle it systematically. That is why we have set up the various anti-graft bodies in Nigeria to fish out the corrupt elements among us,” Jonathan said.
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