Stop encouraging corruption, President Jonathan tells Nigerians

While addressing the 54th Annual Conference of the Nigerian Economic Summit that held in Abuja yesterday, president Goodluck Jonathan blamed the level of corruption in Nigeria on the society. He said instead of punishing corrupt people, we reward them.

“When you talk about corruption, the private sector is involved; the public sector is involved; even the individuals, including other societies, and I wouldn’t want to mention names so that I will not be attacked. But I know that if collectively all of us don’t reward corruption, people would not be attracted to corrupt practices, but when we all reward corruption, then of course, we will be tempted to go in that direction.

“I want a society where all of us will frown against people who come up with what they are not supposed to have. If a young man who just started a job and within six months or a year comes up with a car of N7m to N15m and you clap for him, then you are rewarding corruption." the president said. More when you continue...

“So for us as a nation to bring corruption down in Nigeria, it’s not just blaming government or blaming police, but all individuals must frown at people who have what they are not supposed to have, who live in houses they supposed not to live in; who drive cars they are not supposed to drive and who wear suits more expensive they can afford.

“And until we, as Nigerians are able to do this, then invariably we are all rewarding corruption and until we stop that, I don’t think we will get to where we want to go. We believe that we should not create an environment where people would be tempted to take what belongs to the public because that is why even in the fertilizer business we talked about electronic wallet, e-Wallet, so that funds are not exposed to corrupt people"