We didn't fight corruption thoroughly but we did well - ex-President

Ex-president, Goodluck Jonathan, has said that though his administration failed to plug all the loopholes in battling corruption, he did well as a president.

The former president made this known at the PDP non-elective national convention, which was held at the Eagle Square in Abuja on Saturday, August 12, 2017.

“Though we didn’t completely plug the loopholes in the fight against corruption, but we did well.

“I learnt that some people said that if the PDP had remained in power beyond 2015, the economy would have been worse. This couldn’t have been the case, because we had a sound economic team in place.

“Let us not forget that the great floods of 2012 were a major calamity that damaged homes and farmlands on the plains of River Niger and Benue.

play Former Nigerian President Goodluck Jonathan waves to the crowd as he leaves the office during the inauguration of President Mohammadu Buhari at the Eagles Square in Abuja, on May 29, 2015
(AFP/File)

“But despite the devastating effects of this natural disaster, there were no food shortages or arbitrary increase in prices, because of what we were able to accomplish with our agriculture transformation agenda, which considerably boosted food production.

“If we say that we rekindled hope in our people and regained international goodwill, it is because we pursued a number of policies and programmes that were not only richly rewarding for our people, but were also being copied by many countries across the globe, a few of which I will mention here.”

Jonathan has been blamed for allowing massive cases of corruption in the country with Diezani Alison-Madueke who served as minister of petroleum resources being accused of gross misappropriation of the country’s fund to finance the party ahead of the 2015 elections.