Jonathan was bold with corruption - El-Rufai

More revelations emerged at the weekend why President Muhammadu Buhari appears insistent on
bringing to book some actors in the immediate past administration of the President Goodluck Jonathan, who are believed to have corruptly enriched themselves with public funds.
Giving insight to the reasons in Lagos, Nasir El-Rufai, governor of Kaduna State, who was the guest speaker at the 2015 Founder’s Day Lecture of the King’s College Old Boys’ Association (KCOBA), said stealing of public funds in the Jonathan administration was brazen and with impunity that must not be glossed over.
El-Rufai, who spoke on ‘Preparing the Youth for a Democratic Future’ as guest speaker, explained that whereas stealing was done with some measure of discreet in the past administrations before Jonathan’s, it was rather brazen in the last six years.
“The Jonathanian administration was very bold and transparent in its corruption,” he said.
According to him, “You do not need to look far before you see evidence of corruption. They are everywhere. It was brazen; those who stole public fund in the past, before the Jonathanian era did it with caution. At least, people were conscious of the fact that what they were doing was wrong and tried to hide it. Those who gave contracts were not blatant in their corruption.
They knew how to do it in such a way that their 10percent got to them. But in the last six years, it was as if people were saying, ‘what would anybody do?’ They would steal and leave behind everything; they feared nobody.
“Whereas it would require investigation to nail some public office holders in other administrations, the Jonathanians were so brazen in their corruption that you do not need any investigation as evidence is all over the place.”
The guest speaker emphasised that the current administration was determined to clean the Augean stable, which he noted would not be an easy task. He said the Nigerian citizens needed to exercise a little more patience with the Federal Government, adding that the country would be better for it in the long run.
Citing instance of the nature of brazen nature of stealing that thrived in that era, El-Rufai said a road contract that was awarded in his state for which over N500million had been collected and shared was never done.
According to him, those behind the alleged fraud never cared what would happen to them as there was clear evidence of their malfeasance. He said cases of that nature are replete all over the country.
“Nigerians are very angry because they know what the former administration has done. We’ll get them. It may take some time, but we’ll get them,” he said.
Address the topic of the lecture, El-Rufai said that the current administration was determined to bring the needed change which Nigerians voted for in the last election.
“The youth of this land voted in 2015 for change of bad governance; we must continue to contend with the threats of anti-democratic elements, the threat of Boko Haram and other crimes that are trying to destroy the country. We must do all we can to protect democracy in our country,” he said.
Stressing the importance of freedom in a democracy, El-Rufai said a democratic setting must guarantee such for all citizens.
“Why did the Libyans rise against Muammar Gaddafi? It was not because of poverty; they were living fine; they had houses; there was free and quality education; they had basic things of life, but he was killed because they were looking for freedom. Our country has no future without democracy,” he said.