Top echelon of international media has queried the emergence of some alleged corrupt politicians as some party candidates ahead of the 2019 Presidential election in Nigeria.
In a round table discussion with Nigeria’s Information and Culture Minister, Mr Lai Mohammed on Friday in London, the media executives said if the country’s anti corruption crackdown was effective it would not have been possible for corrupt elements to emerge as party candidates.
”There are strong and wealthy candidates in the Nigerian presidential race whose source of wealth is still unaccounted for,” the media executives said .
Effort in fighting corruption
In a chat with journalists after the round table with top media executives, Mr Lai Mohammed revealed that the international community still views Nigeria as corrupt in spite of the frantic effort of the present administration to fight corruption.
”One curious issue that kept occurring was that anytime I spoke about how we have waged war against corruption, journalists kept asking me how can you claim to have succeeded in waging war against corruption when one of the major contestants in the 2019 general elections is actually a man with stupendous wealth but cannot explain the source of his wealth.
That baffles me because it mean that we are still been perceived as a country where corruption thrives. It was difficult for me to explain to them that yes we are fighting corruption but these are the same people who have put this country where we are today who are also trying to come back to power,”Mohammed stated.
The Minister however said such scenarios would define the task of choice for Nigerians.
According to him, the choice for Nigerians today is either they go back to the corrupt past where the country’s commonwealth was shared by a few elites or move forward and continue with this new trajectory, where the national resources is used for the benefit of all Nigerians.
”I explained to them that the 2019 elections have been defined and the choice have been made easy and we know that Nigerians will choose rightly,” the minister stated.
On the forth coming elections and the allege gang up against the President Buhari’s government, the Minister said there were many reasons why people would want to bring down this government.
Illicit wealth
The minister said this government has actually affected the fortunes of many of the few beneficiaries of illicit wealth.
”This government’s style has adversely affected many people who were simply parasite, people who sucked the blood of the nation doing nothing, people who amassed unexplained wealth just by being agents or consultants to none existence projects…We are not surprised by the kind of bitterness and hatred such people has for the government.
”This government has stopped business as usual in all respect…Interestingly, someone just told me now that when they got to Dubai, they told them that the fight against corruption is working and even affecting their businesses in that country.
”They said they were feeling it because the kind of loose money that used to be available is no longer available,” Mohammed explained.
He said; ”The beauty of it is that the kind of measures we are putting in place especially through the Treasury Single Account where government can track all its income is working.
”This is opposed to when we came in when the Nigerian government has over 2000 accounts and what was being paid into those accounts was enough to provide infrastructure for the country.
Today we have a regime that has declared zero tolerance for corruption and you will not be surprised that those who had been benefiting from corruption will be up and armed to fight this government.”
