President Goodluck Jonathan
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OLALEKAN ADETAYO, in this piece, X-rays the controversy that surrounds the claim by President Goodluck Jonathan in his Independence anniversary speech that his government was highly rated by the Transparency International for its fight against corruption
Since the Union Jack was lowered on October 1, 1960 and Nigeria’s Green-White-Green flag was hoisted to signal the nation’s independence, successive governments have been marking the day as the country’s Independence Day.
However, celebrations have never been limited to the day. Activities are always lined up to precede the D-Day. Such activities include interdenominational services in churches and mosques, Independence lecture and dinner among others, depending on the mood of the nation at the time of the celebration.
Whether low-keyed or elaborate festivity, one activity that has remained unvarying among the programmes is the Independence Day address to the nation by whoever is the head of government at the time of the commemoration. The address, which is aired on radio and television stations in the morning of the Independence Day, is meant to keep citizens abreast of positive developments as well as challenges facing the country since the last celebration. The President may also tell the citizens other issues he wants them to know.
The yearly ritual was expected on October I, 2012. And it happened. Therefore, as early as 7am that morning, when the nation marked its 52nd Independence anniversary, many Nigerians were glued to their television and radio sets with mixed feelings, expecting to hear what their President, Dr. Goodluck Jonathan would tell them. Some were looking forward to policy statements that they thought would turn the fortunes of the country around. Others were not expecting anything new from their President who they see as a man who always repeats issues he had raised several times. Some even believed that the President was fond of making bogus claims, which they said were not in tandem with the reality on the ground.
As it turned out, the 17-minute address by Jonathan on that fateful morning has again turned his albatross. Jonathan had in the address given his administration pass marks in some sectors including agriculture, economy and power among others. He, however, courted controversy while attempting to give himself a pat on the back in its administration’s efforts at ending corruption. He boasted that he had so far given the leadership of the nation’s anti-graft agencies freehand to do their job. He added that the decision not to interfere had paid off. He proudly told Nigerians that the global corruption watch body, Transparency International, had rated Nigeria second after United States in the fight against graft.
“In its latest report, Transparency International noted that Nigeria is the second most improved country in the effort to curb corruption. We will sustain the effort in this direction with an even stronger determination to strengthen the institutions that are statutorily entrusted with the task of ending this scourge,” the President had told the nation in a confident voice. He had made a similar claim at an interdenominational church service held the previous day as part of the activities marking the Independence anniversary.
TI was hitherto known to be critical of Nigeria as far as corruption was concerned. The global body has consistently been placing the nation on the list as one of the most corrupt countries. It is therefore understandable that a piece of news that the same body has recognised Nigeria’s efforts at combating graft will elicit interest from all stakeholders.
The claim by Jonathan has since been found to be untrue with many accusing their President of telling a lie. In fact, TI has reportedly denied issuing such a report. An online publication, Premium Times, reports that TI refuted the claim when it was contacted. “Transparency International does not have a recent rating or report that places Nigeria as the second most improved country in the fight against corruption,” Premium Times quoted the organisation to have said in a mail.
As expected, the development attracted a lot of flak to the President. First to fire the opening salvo was the opposition political party, the Action Congress of Nigeria, which urged Jonathan to apologise to Nigerians for misleading them. The party, in a statement by its National Publicity Secretary, Alhaji Lai Mohammed, said it was taken aback that the President of Africa’s most populous nation and the continent’s second largest economy could make such a frivolous claim on an issue of global concern.
The ACN added that in addition to apologising to all Nigerians for the false claim, the President must immediately kick-start an investigation into the source of a claim that has exposed his administration and the entire country to global ridicule. It said the wrong claim by the President raised doubts about the authenticity of other claims by the President in the anniversary speech. The party said if the President failed to act quickly to unearth the source of such a spurious claim and ensure it does not recur, he risks a bigger embarrassment from officials who may want to tweak facts and figures to justify their positions.
Although the President has not apologised, he indeed conducted a probe which resulted in a statement that revealed that the claim was actually sourced from a news item in a September 12, 2012 edition of a business newspaper. The explanation was published on the website of the Ministry of Information.
The explanation had ended with, “For a section of the opposition to now cast aspersions on the integrity of the President when he relied on notorious facts (anything published in the press and which remains unchallenged is a notorious fact) is proof positive of the now obvious fact that they lack ideas on how to move Nigeria forward and would rather snipe at efforts of the President to move the nation forward for which any patriot would do.”
Again, ACN won’t take such a statement lying low. The party described the decision of the government to blame the inaccurate claim on the media as a product of bad thinking, saying that the action is worse than the original gaffe. “It is lazy and irresponsible for handsomely-remunerated presidential aides to lift the claim of Nigeria’s supposed progress in the anti-corruption effort from a newspaper and insert such in a presidential speech without confirmation. But then anything is possible in a rookie Presidency populated by apprentice aides,” the party said.
ACN is not alone in the President’s condemnation. It has an ally in the All Nigeria Peoples Party which said it was unreasonable for the President to misrepresent statistics, saying such is a strong message of support to corrupt people and those planning to confuse the citizens for their own personal gain. “Words and body language are potent enough to aggravate corruption just as corrupt practices would. When a leader embellishes a story, he is inadvertently telling his subjects to turn the truth on its head whenever they find the opportunity,” the ANPP said in a statement by its National Publicity Secretary, Mr. Emma Eneukwu.
But to the Special Adviser to the President on Media and Publicity, Dr. Reuben Abati, the backlash that has trailed his boss’ address particularly the anti-corruption claim was unnecessary. Abati is of the opinion that whether the claim was wrong or right, Nigerians should have focused more on the President’s message which is that his administration is committed to fighting the scourge.
He said, “The President’s message is that this administration is tackling corruption. The revelations from the pension scam and the fuel subsidy scam as well as the sanitation of activities at the ports all came to be because the President sanctioned them. People should focus on the message, namely that a lot of progress has been made and is still being made to tackle corruption in the system. There are lot of people outside there who mislead Nigerians that nothing is being done. These people tackle individuals. What the President did was that he fired hope and promised renewed dedication to the service of the nation. There are those who are looking for a way to water down the message.”
As the controversy lingers, many observers are still waiting to see the fate that will befall those who misled the President into making the spurious claim that has succeeded in bringing him to ridicule in the eyes of many Nigerians. This is so as the President does not write his own speeches. Many are also wondering whether the President should not have insisted on seeing proof of such a claim before reeling it out to unsuspecting Nigerians.
What is however clear in the latest episode is that the self-acclaimed most criticised President in the world has succeeded in attracting fresh criticism to himself. He should be prepared to receive more pebbles, unless he and his aides learn to do their homework well before coming to the public with claims, especially those that are verifiable.
Source : punchng[dot]com
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