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"