I’m coming up with anti-corruption plan — President Jonathan

One area that even close members of President Goodluck Jonathan's government can't defend him is the fact that millions and billions are missing and nothing much is heard in terms of answers. Hence, it's a good omen if he has decided to take up the challenge against corruption with full force.

He said, “There are two main problems confronting us as a nation: The issue of insecurity in the North where we have the Boko Haram terrorists and in the South where we have commercial kidnapping. The next thing that people worry about after security is the issue of corruption.

“We are coming out with programmes and plans to clean up. These are things that you don’t just use a magical wand to wave off, otherwise even before I became the President, there wouldn’t have been corruption in Nigeria."

President Jonathan said his administration’s strategy against corruption was to strengthen the capability of institutions to nip the menace in the bud. He said his idea of anti-corruption war was not about arresting suspects and parading them on the television.

Jonathan spoke during a special New Year service at the Dunamis church, Area 1, Garki, Abuja.

He said his administration was making efforts to tackle the challenges of insecurity and corruption .

“It is not just about shouting corruption. It is not about looking at one person, arrest the person and show him on television.

“It is about strengthening institutions and coming up with credible plans to make sure that anybody who gets involved with corruption, the system must have a way of detecting him and punishing him.

“Until you put such a system on ground, you cannot talk about eradicating corruption, you will just be celebrating corruption.”

On security challenges, Jonathan said the Federal Government was working hard to restore peace to the country.

He noted that the festive period had been relatively peaceful due to prayers and government’s efforts.

The President said, “You would have noticed that from Christmas to New Year, at least, it has been calm. It did not happen by accident.

“It happened because you have been praying for this country and the government has also been doing something. We do not need to announce what we are doing.

“With your prayers, we will surely get there. We will continue to come up with programmes that will help the ordinary people.

“The same way we won the war against Ebola, we shall win the terror war.”