Following the alleged "LIE" told by Mr President in his Independence day speechm some of his aides are set to have landed themseles in trouble for reportedly putting false information in the 52nd Independence anniversary speech of the President.
Jonathan in his 52nd Independence Day broadcast told Nigerians that the global corruption watch body, Transparency International, rated Nigeria second after United States in anti-corruption efforts.
The claim has been found to be untrue with many accusing Jonathan of telling a lie.
In fact, TI has reportedly denied issuing such a report.
Furious at the development, the President has reportedly ordered a probe to discover the source of the misinformation.
“In its latest report, Transparency International noted that Nigeria is the second most improved country in the effort to curb corruption. We will sustain the effort in this direction with an even stronger determination to strengthen the institutions that are statutorily entrusted with the task of ending this scourge,” Jonathan had told the nation on October 1.
The President had made a similar claim at an interdenominational church service held on Sunday as part of the activities marking the nation’s 52nd Independence anniversary.
But an online publication, Premium Times, reports that TI refuted the claim when it was contacted.
“Transparency International does not have a recent rating or report that places Nigeria as the second most improved country in the fight against corruption,” Premium Times quoted the organisation to have said in a mail.
A source said since he had based his speech on information made available to him by his aides, the President promptly ordered the probe of the source of the claim.
An insider in the Presidency told reporters on Tuesday that the President’s media handlers met on the issue.
They were said to have directed one of the presidential aides, Mr. Reno Omokri, to probe the source of the false claim.
Already, Omokri had reportedly concluded his findings which showed that the piece of information was lifted from a publication in the BusinessDay of September 12, 2012 edition.
Curiously, the memo in which Omokri reported his findings to other aides had found its way to the websites of some online publications on Tuesday.
The memo was also published on the website of the Ministry of Information, http://www.fmi.gov.ng/, as a rejoinder under the headline, “Mr. President’s statement was based on notorious facts.”
In the memo, Omokri who signed simply as Reno, said the President’s claim was based on a newspaper report.
“On this issue, the media published their synopsis of the most recent Transparency International report and BusinessDay, a well respected newspaper with a bias for business reporting, in a headline on the 12th of September 2012 with the title “FG’s anti-corruption initiative impacts Nigeria’s global perception” said, ‘The survey on global corruption perceptions for 2011 versus 2001 showed that the third best improvement in the world was in Nigeria, with its score improving by 1.5 points.’
“For a section of the opposition to now cast aspersions on the integrity of the President when he relied on notorious facts (anything published in the press and which remains unchallenged is a notorious fact) is proof positive of the now obvious fact that they lack ideas on how to move Nigeria forward and would rather snipe at efforts of the President to move the nation forward for which any patriot would do.”
Official reactions normally bear the full names and designations of the authors of such documents.
Our correspondent learnt that the development had caused panic in the Presidency with fear of dismissal already gripping some top officials.
In his reaction, Special Adviser to the President on Media and Publicity, Dr. Reuben Abati, told journalists on Tuesday that Nigerians should focus more on the President’s message.
He said, “The President’s message is that this administration is tackling corruption. The revelations from the pension scam and the fuel subsidy scam as well as the sanitation of activities at the ports all came to be because the President sanctioned them.
“People should focus on the message, namely that a lot of progress has been made and is still being made to tackle corruption in the system.
“There are lot of people outside there who mislead Nigerians that nothing is being done. These people tackle individuals.
“What the President did was that he fired hope and promised his rededication to the service of the nation. There are those who are looking for a way to water down the message.”
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Too sad. The 'President GEJ Lie' is another revelation to the level things were in this country. Abatis comment is just nothing but 'medicine after death'. Hes nt the then Reuben Abati of Guradian. With the chain of Media Assistants and wagon of Special Media Assistants wt huge allowances being squadalise on this ppl, so ANYTHING even deception still ve its way into The Presidents speech without confirmation of genuity of info. Hmm..mmm What a shame of the nation. This is another INDEPENDENCE GIFT TO OUR NATION FROM GEJ.
ReplyDeleteTp
All GEJ should be paid October Salary.
ReplyDeleteFor misleading GEJ.
Well i wont blame them , they the type of person our president his
It is really Dissappointing Τ̲̅Ñ’É‘̤̥̈̊Ï„̲̅ GEJ can address Ï„̲̅ђε nation without verifying ♓☺w genuine Ï„̲̅ђε info is
ReplyDeleteSo many bad people surround this GEJ, it is only God that will help u Mr. president.
ReplyDeleteHis Excellency,President GEJ,.....you need to look inwards for those who are seeking your down fall. Pleaseee!!!!
ReplyDeleteBlame the speech writers and researchers who are paid billions of task payers money not the President. The President cannot do everything alone.
ReplyDeleteThe president himself should have known better, period.
ReplyDeleteWHO IS FOOLING WHO HERE? U MEAN D PRESIDENT DOES NOT KNOW ANY THING GOING ON IN HIS OWN DOMAIN NOT TO TALK OF D WORLD EXCEPT WHAT THE AIDES TELL HIM? THAT SPEAKS VOLUME! NO WONDER HE HAS TO SURROUND HIMSELF WITH RETINUES OF AIDES WHO ARE NOTHING BUT BUNCH OF SOCIAL PARIAHS AND ECONOMIC MIGRANTS. GOD WILL SURELY DELIVER US!
ReplyDeleteJonathan is yet to recognize the fact that he had dived in at the deep end the moment he vied for the presidency. He lacks the requisite knowledge of what the job involves. A university teacher ("Dr") who cannot take the pains, even for thirty minutes, to go through and vet his speeches before presenting them. Evidently, GEJ contributes nothing (input) to his speeches because only in the month of May this year, he was written by Fisch and Associates based in the Hague, Netherlands, decrying the "scope and speed of corruption" in Nigeria. The letter reads in part: “The problem, Your Excellency, has to do with the rate and scale of scams and corruption probes coming out of Nigeria in 2012."
ReplyDelete"The scope and speed of corruption in your country this year is beyond anything our client has ever dealt with." When the pension scam broke out, the three specialists working on Nigeria complained about overwork and threatened a law suit against Transparency
International because they had to work 23 hours a day from Monday to Sunday just to cope with the figures coming out of that scam.” I am saddened daily by embarrassing revelations from our leaders!
the president can not even vet/crosscheck wat he want to read to the whole world.cudos to baba iyabo.obj himself.
ReplyDeleteDummy! A wise man will always prepare b4 embarkin on a journey! Mr presidoo shud hav read d speeches cross checkin weda it is apropriate or nt! Earlier, B4 readin it to d masses! All dy do is giv nice speeches of lies! Tikin nigerians ar fools n can nt see tins 4 dem self! God help us all! God bless nigeria!
ReplyDeleteGEJ , let me tell you one thing .
ReplyDeleteWe are wise now , nobody can fool us .
we are only waiting for tenure to elapsed so that we can delete you ...
You failed to impress me .
you fail to impress me as well .
ReplyDeleteGEJ . DO YOU NEED MESSIAH TO COME AND TELL YOU THAT YOUR ADMINISTRATION IS FULL OF CORRUPTION.
ReplyDeleteYOU THINK YOU ARE WISE BY CAJOLING NIGERIA WITH YOUR SPEECH .
OK NO PROBLEM .
WE SHALL SEE .
I think public should suggest punishment for GEJ
ReplyDeletefor feeding the whole Nigerians with lie.
May be Mr president doesn't know the extend of the offence in the international world.
You really put question mark on our intellect...
However , i will suggest that those that wrote the speech for you should be given read card and for you no salary for month of October.
Final Final
I support you
ReplyDeleteMe too i support
ReplyDeletedats bulshit, if d president cannot verify facts b4 disgracing himsef b4 d world den its no wonder d state of d country wer in now.its not d writers dat wer said 2 av lied now bt d president.GEJ, am unimpresed by dis.haba....
ReplyDeleteNigerians should think pls. GEJ is under serious bondage. The people with him don't want him to succeed becos most of them collect pay frm the people that nominated them, simply to run GEJ down. My greatest worry is that MR PRESIDENT is afraid of everything including himself. What we need in this country today is total revolution, all this old brigade should all be voted or forced out. They are all criminals.
ReplyDeleteNa true talk, some people dont want GEJ to succeed for instance the Vice President (Namadi Sambo) and others(the Northerners in particular).
ReplyDelete... But our Mr. Pressy is not a dummy. It has been reported that it was the same statement he made about TI at a church service was repeated a day later. When we read, we understand what we are reading because we are not robots who lack cognition. Is it being said that Mr. Pressy's alarm bell did not trigger when he read the sentence in question?
ReplyDeleteFor me, two things: 1. Mr Presido must take responsibility for this action because the buck stops on his table. Two, are we being told that our Presido does not read a text prepared/written for him before he reads it out to a wider audience, the country or the WWW?
The only conclusion one can draw from this is that this man is not in control. Chikena!
Presidents like Obama don't read their speeches from pieces of paper,they virtually speak from their brains. It works for them because they get themselves directly involved either directly or in suprvisory capacity.I doubt if he can fall into a mess like this. This actually shows why things are so messed up in Nigeria. Nothing works because there's problem with the logistics....Chris
ReplyDeleteHow can Mr President read what he was not sure of? He is suppose to be number one citizen of Nigeria and suppose to have little knowledge of all happening. does it mean he didnt go tru the address before mounting the podium on Oct 1st? am short of words...
ReplyDeleteApprentice president. This Jonathan of a man is a disgrace to himself, PDD and Nigeria. He has not sorrounded himself with good and disciplined hands. He is not energetic at governance. He is not researching and studious at his job. He does not even know what his government is not doing well in tackling corruption. His statements are always hollow, banal and senseless. Kudos to OBJ. outstanding records in most areas of governanace.
ReplyDelete