The Lagos State governorship candidate of
the Peoples Democratic Party, Jimi Agbaje, says President Goodluck
Jonathan is being criticised unfairly, adding that the President is
effectively tackling corruption.
Agbaje said this at a youth interactive
session organised by the Directorate of Youth Mobilisation of the PDP in
Lagos on Monday.
He noted that the Transparency
International report on corruption showed that out of 174 countries
evaluated for corruption, Nigeria ranked 136th which means at least 38
countries are more corrupt than Nigeria.
He said, “I don’t know if you read
recently the report by Transparency International on corruption. They
say Jonathan is not fighting corruption. Of all the past Presidents and
heads of state, including military, it is on record today that
Jonathan’s record in fighting corruption is the best. They say he is not
fighting corruption but he has the highest score in the last 20 years
among those that have been fighting corruption.”
The PDP candidate said Jonathan was a true democrat and that was why he signed the Freedom of Information Bill into law.
He said despite the insults being hurled at Jonathan, the President refused to intimidate anyone.
He said the fact that Jonathan chose
Prof. Attahiru Jega to head the Independent National Electoral
Commission showed that Jonathan was more interested in free and fair
elections than power.
He said, “It is only because Jonathan
allowed democracy, that is why they can be insulting him the way they
like. The person that was there before Jonathan, could they talk to him
like that? But you see democracy is about freedom of speech, freedom of
choice but do they allow that?
“Jonathan has allowed freedom of
information. There is no freedom of information in Lagos State. They
have not yet passed the law and they talk about democracy. Jonathan
chose an impartial person to run INEC because he believes in democracy
and that is why the elections are more competitive. If it was our own
person, we would not be campaigning like this because we would believe
that we had won.”
