Jonathan to Nigerians: Stop celebrating people with ill-gotten wealth

President Goodluck Jonathan has urged Nigerians to stop celebrating people with ill-gotten wealth in order to discourage corruption in the country.
Jonathan, who participated in the Presidential Debate organised by the Nigeria Elections Debate Group (NEDG) on Sunday in Abuja, said Nigerians should change their attitude towards primitive accumulation of wealth.
He said that his government has introduced e-payment system in the country to stop the flow of raw cash and diversion of funds to reduce embezzlement.
Jonathan said the method he used in fighting corruption was prevention, strengthening of institutions and re-orientation of the people.
“Nigerians should change their mentality and condemn people with ill-gotten wealth. What we see is a situation where somebody gets wealth illegally and goes to his village and they give him a chieftaincy title. In the government circle, we used the IPPIS; no more use of raw cash; it cuts across all sectors and in that case you stop people from stealing public fund.”
According to Jonathan, the government has tackled irregularities that characterised the supply of fertiliser to Nigerian farmers.
On corruption, the presidential candidate of National Conscience Party, Mr Martins Onovo, said that no meaningful development would be achieved if corruption was not tackled.
Mr Chekwas Okorie, the presidential candidate of the United Progressives Party (UPP) said that the fight against corruption must start from the top and that leaders must lead by personal example.
“Assets declaration will be compulsory and made public and should be reviewed yearly. Security votes must be tied to only security matters and must be accounted for. Immunity must be limited to civil matters and all criminals must be tried.’’
Prof. Oluremi Sonaiya, the presidential candidate of KOWA Party, said that public office should be made less attractive by making the holders to earn normal salaries.
Jonathan also expressed optimism that Nigerian universities would rank among the best in the world in the next four years, as a result of the ongoing transformation of the education system.
He revealed that Nigerian universities had been equipped to compete with their foreign counterparts.
Jonathan said that education was a responsibility of both states and the federal governments, adding that the present administration gives support to the states through the Universal Basic Education Commission (UBEC).
“We all feel bad that no Nigerian university was ranked but we are working seriously to change the trend. We have equipped most of our universities through the Tertiary Education Trust Fund (TETFund). We are talking about infrastructure that has failed over the years but with the way we are going, in the next four years, our universities will compete with other universities across the world.
Also speaking, Mr Godson Okoye, the presidential candidate of United Democratic Party, decried the situation where people who had benefited from free education turned education to business.
“We must re-engineer education right from nursery schools; teachers training colleges must be revisited,’’ he said.
Prof. Oluremi Sonaiya, the presidential candidate of KOWA party, said the whole focus should not be on formal education but a broad-based education.
“Ignorance is one of the ills; KOWA will address formal and informal education; curriculum should be reviewed.
Five political parties-PDP, NCP, UPP, KOWA and UDP participated in the second session of the debate.