PRESIDENT JONATHAN: ''STEMMING CORRUPTION IS MY MAJOR PRIORITY''        

President Goodluck Jonathan Monday said his administration was committed to fighting corruption in the country.

Speaking at the 2013 annual national conference of the Nigerian Institute of Management (NIM) in Uyo, the Akwa Ibom State capital, Jonathan said he knew the effect of corruption to the growth of the country, pledging that he would tackle the menace head on.

The president, who was represented by the Head of Civil Service of the Federation, Alhaji Bukar Goni-Aji, explained that since the inception of his administration, the federal government had not relented in its endeavours to ensure that it delivers the dividends of democracy to the teeming populace through good governance, especially as the critical sectors of the economy are being tackled.

He noted that the theme of the conference, “Essentials of Good Governance in the Progressive Transformation of Nigeria,” was relevant to the present state of affairs in the country and in line with the Transformation Agenda of his administration. The president listed areas his administration  has recorded successes, including creating political stable environment, sound economic policies, youth unemployment, port reforms, air transportation, housing and diversifying the economy away from the oil sector into agriculture, housing, manufacturing, creative industries among other areas.

“By choosing this theme as the focus of this year’s conference, the institute has further demonstrated that it is always committed to supporting the federal government in achieving its drive to reposition and turn around the nation’s economy.” “All these laudable achievements by our administration cannot be sustained if the state of insecurity witnessed in the recent past had continued. 

“We are happy to say that the state of emergency in parts of the North has brought normalcy to the concerned areas. That spread of insurgency in the area demanded full deployment of forces and routine security checks. “With cooperation from neighboring countries, inflow of arms and incessant criminality has reduced. We are appreciative to the people of the North-east and the security forces for their sacrifice and cooperation at a very difficult period in our nation’s history,” the president said. He called on the institute to improve its visibility and interactions at public hearings of the National Assembly when bills are considered so as to have their views and professionals inputs.

He emphasised that for the nation to be on the path of greatness and prosperity, the elimination of all forms of corrupt practices had been a major priority stand of his administration, as a great nation is a reward great leadership built on transparency and good governance.

As a nation, he said the federal government would continue the fight against corruption and associated social vices in the system.

Speaking earlier, the President, of NIM, Dr. Michael Olawale-Cole, had linked the mirage of problems confronting the country to leadership, saying the nation needed committed and purposeful leaders. Olawale-Colle, who is also the Chairman of Council of the NIM, said it was ironic that Nigeria, blessed with abundant natural and human resources, had not been able to get it right in the area of leadership. The NIM boss insisted that “ineffective leadership has been the bane of the nation’s development since independence,” hinting that the annual national conference was a major platform for members to focus and brainstorm on burning and contemporary leadership issues of national importance and ways forward to government.  He lamented that “while other nations which are not as equally blessed have moved on due to purposeful and committed leadership, Nigeria has continued to stagnate in almost all facets of its national life due to leadership ineptitude, widespread corruption and other social vices that stall every attempt at effective leadership. 

According to him, it takes a lot of commitment and focus to deliver good governance, declaring that “the problem of Nigeria has never been that of paucity of funds and resources but lack of the political will to do the right thing” as the best democracies of the world thrive on good governance. 

He said the theme of the conference was chosen because the institute came to the painful and sad conclusion that more than ever before in the history of its existence, Nigeria needs an urgent solution to the many leadership and governance challenges besetting it which are threatening the nation’s corporate existence. Olawale-Cole added that instead of sitting by criticising government and trading endless blames on why the nation has come to this pathetic leadership crossroads, believes in supporting government in finding solutions to the problems of governance through the conference to contribute its quota by proffering viable and workable roadmap to the leadership question through the focus on ways to deliver good governance to Nigerians. 

Besides the annual conference, he stressed that the institute had been impacting the nation in other ways especially being the foremost and largest multidisciplinary professional body in Nigeria with membership strength of over 170,000 individual and 400 corporate members.

He said in the past 52 years, the body had recorded laudable achievements in the areas of professional management, capacity building, consultancy, re-engineering and human capital development. 

Olawale-Cole charged members of the institute to do away with avarice, self aggrandisement, contract-splitting, over invoicing, and other vices that are commonplace in the workplace and the nation, which had hampered the much-desired match towards national transformation.


Source;ThisDay.