Former President Goodluck Jonathan has lashed out at those who misquoted him by saying he said stealing is no corruption.
He stated this while in a new book titled “Against The Run of Play”, which is authored by the Chairman of ThisDay Editorial Board, Mr Olusegun Adeniyi, who is also an accomplished Politics Editor.
In the book which is to be presented on Friday in Lagos, the former Nigerian leader debunked the claims that he said stealing is not corruption.
He said he did not ever say so but he was misquoted by the then opposition to score cheap political points.
His words: “I invited the leadership of the National Assembly and the Judiciary as well as heads of anti-corruption agencies. I recall that aside from the Chief Justice of Nigeria, the President of the Court of Appeal and Chief judge of the Federal High Court (were also present).
I also invited Chief Judges from one state in each of the geopolitical zones. I specifically requested for Lagos and Anambra to represent their zones. My choosing Anambra was because that is one state where every political aspirant goes into the election with at least two court orders in his pocket. You cannot fight corruption without dealing with such issues.”
“That was what the then CJN said which I was explaining, but the opposition latched on to it. A prominent member of the opposition who is now a governor of his state even sponsored someone to write a book titled, ‘Where stealing is not corruption’. The book was supposed to be launched in the days preceding the election though, for some reasons, that never took place but I have a copy of the book where I was lampooned and called all sorts of names.”
“That was what was important to me. I would not go outside the country and say Nigerians are the most corrupt people because not only is that unhelpful, I am also indicting myself. Take the oil industry.
”Yet, people make all the noise about corruption. If the problem is that I failed to label Nigerians as fantastically corrupt, then I don’t think I should apologise for that.
Jonathan said that what those who romanticise the issue forgot was that “when you destroy your country, you are also destroying yourself”.
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