Why Jonathan is not recognized for fighting corruption by Magnus Onyibe

The general perception amongst Nigerians, wrongly or rightly is that president Goodluck Jonathan’s government is not fighting corruption with adequate vigor. As worrisome as such negative perception amongst Nigerians is, re echoing such sordid views on corruption in Nigeria by foreign media organs amounts to double jeopardy not only for president Jonathan and the ruling political party, the PDP but for the Nigerian economy and society as well.

Take for instance the article in LA Times of California, USA partly reproduced below “Regarding Nigeria , Washington continues to pledge counter terrorism support, without a public word to Jonathan about missing billions, even though the collapse of U.S demand for oil puts American officials in a good position to exert leverage. Jonathan’s finance minister gets a regular Washington platform to paint rosy pictures of her country’s economy. The oil minister has not been sanctioned despite those gaps in the revenue she is supposed to be depositing in government coffers. And dodgy Nigerian banks retain correspondent relationships with U.S counterparts” In the manner of a gifted pugilist determined to knock out an opponent, the writer struck a final lethal blow by concluding a highly opinionated piece on Nigeria in a most cruel and cold manner with the following sentences: “lt’s up to Nigerians to decide this month what kind of leadership they want for their country. But if American officials truly mean to address the root causes of terrorism-as both president Obama and Secretary of State john Kerry have proclaimed- a good place to start would be with corruption.”

With such scathing remarks in the blistering article titled ‘Nigeria’s In-Your-Face Corruption Maybe Fueling Boko Haram Terrorism’ written by Sarah Chayes, a senior associate at Carnegie Endowment, no one should be left in doubt as to whether or not election 2015 is about President Goodluck Jonathan and the odious corruption perception in Nigeria.

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