President Bola Tinubu has said that his administration has drastically reduced corrupt practices in Nigeria.
Speaking at his first Presidential Media Chat, Tinubu said the government cannot eliminate corruption fully.
Tinubu said his efforts in this regard included the removal of subsidy, which he said ended stopped smuggling of the nation’s petroleum resources.
The President said he believed in people having more access to legitimate income as a way to tackle corruption, noting that with increased earnings, allocation to states and local governments had increased.
He also stated that anti-corruption agencies continued to plug loopholes for corruption, noting that the recent discovery of hundreds of duplexes in Abuja was evidence of his government’s corruption fight.
Tinubu also mentioned the Student Loan as a means to prevent people from subscribing to corruption to fund their education.
While noting that the government cannot eliminate corruption fully, he stated that it had drastically reduced corrupt practices, adding that the increase in minimum wage was also a way to tackle corruption.
The President said, “Corruption in all ramifications is bad. First of all, pay enough attention to the causes. Why are the people corrupt?
“The lack of social amenities; the lack of needs in some areas; lack of funding for their children’s education.
“There are so many anti-corruption mechanisms that you can put in place that will help the people not to be corrupt. Pay them good living wages.
“I have moved from N35,000 to N70,000, to me that is anti-corruption. If I can earn more, I have given more money to the states and local governments. I have been transparent with my earnings. Every month, there is a publication as to how much this country is making.
“We got the man who had 735 houses. You don’t know how long it has started. He had fantastic infrastructure; he had a row of houses but we got it.
“That is anti-corruption too. We got it for the public. The structure, ability to stem corruption is part of the instrument of the EFCC, that is why they are discovering all sorts of inefficiencies in the system.
“Block all the loopholes where anybody can just game the system.
“Part of the anti-corruption is removal of subsidy. It is very difficult to eliminate but you reduce it to the barest minimum.
“Meet the people’s needs; help them with the education of their children. Our students’ loan is part of anti-corruption.
“No parent should lament how to encourage their children in university education. It is working for the larger part of the population.”
Asked about how to stem the high price of food items, Tinubu said he believed in increasing agricultural production, not price control.
He said government would continue to work hard to increase supply to the market such that the nation had enough to feed itself and export. “I don’t believe in price control,” he said.
