President Goodluck Jonathan Lied In Independence Anniversary Broadcast... Premium Times

This is one issue that is gradually generating a lot of controversies since our dear president delivered his Independence Day Anniversary speech yesterday the 1st of October 2012.

According to Premium Times, President Jonathan lied in his Independence day anniversary broadcast.

In their words:

President Jonathan lied that Transparency International has endorsed and commended his administration’s war against corruption.

President Goodluck Jonathan lied to the world in his Independence Day anniversary speech about gains his administration has made in the fight against corruption, a PREMIUM TIMES investigations has revealed.

In what appears to be a major credibility stunt, President Jonathan read a speech in which he scored his government high on all sides.

In order to make his good performance appear holistic, the president included in his speech that global corruption watchdog, Transparency International, has endorsed and praised his administration’s war against corruption. 

“We are fighting corruption in all facets of our economy, and we are succeeding. We have put an end to several decades of endemic corruption associated with fertilizer and tractor procurement and distribution. We have exposed decades of scam in the management of pensions and fuel subsidy, and ensured that the culprits are being brought to book,” he added. 

The lie

PREMIUM TIMES contacted Transparency International seeking a copy of its latest report which the President referred to in his speech.

The group replied promptly disowning Mr. Jonathan and saying it had no such report. 

The group said its most recent indexing of Nigeria’s corruption activities was in the 2011 Corruption Perceptions Index, which measuresd perceived level of public sector corruption i the country. 

That rating was actually a dip in performance for Nigeria as the country was rated 134 out of 183 countries the previous year, 2010.

The president’s spokesperson would not comment for this story. The Special Adviser on Media, Reuben Abati as well as the Special Assistant on Public Affairs, Doyin Okupe, did not answer or return calls.

They also did not reply text messages sent to their telephones.