President
Goodluck Jonathan has said that he will return to his Otuoke home in Bayelsa
State, if by default, he loses the March 28 presidential election.
Jonathan, who
said Nigeria is not his father’s estate, was however optimistic that he “will
not lose the election.”
“If by default
somebody wins the election, of course, I will go back to my village. The
country is not my father’s estate,” he told AlJazeera, on Monday night.
The President
however accused the former Central Bank of Nigeria Governor, Sanusi Lamido (the
current Emir of Kano) for blowing the issue of corruption out of proportion,that
the Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation failed to remit N49.8bn to the
national treasury between 2011 and 2012.
Jonathan said,
“Even the corruption issues –even if you look at the Corruption Perception
Index…yes, people talk about corruption now because it has become almost a
political issue. And when you move something to the level of politics, of
course normally the issue is blown out of proportion.
“Yes, we have
cases of corruption but it’s not as bad as people make it to be. Yes, we have
cases of stealing; I always say it that, call a thief a thief. I am not staying
that Nigeria doesn’t have an element of corruption or stealing.
“Start from
ex-CBN governor who said $48.9bn was missing. What is the budget of this
country for God’s sake? Our budget has been about N3.something trillion. That’s
roughly about $18 to $20bn a year.
“And someone is
saying we lose N48.9bn. If we lost that huge amount both federal and state
governments would not be able to pay salaries. I don’t know how he came about
that figure. The next thing was for him to reduce the figure. Up to this time I
don’t know which is the correct accusation.”
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