Judiciary, obstacle in fight against corruption –Buhari

President Muhammadu Buhari has stated that but for the judiciary, corruption would have been greatly reduced in the country, and that the arm of government is his greatest obstacle in the fight to eradicate corruption in the country.

The president while speaking on Sunday at a town hall meeting with Nigerians living in Ethiopia in Addis Ababa, stated that with a vibrant judiciary, the fight to rid the country of corruption would be more successful.

A statement by the president’s Special Adviser on Media and Publicity, Mr Femi Adesina, quoted the president as saying, that his administration was bent on implementing far-reaching reforms in the judiciary.

He said, “On the fight against corruption vis-à-vis the judiciary, Nigerians will be right to say that is my main headache for now.

“If you reflect on what I went through for twelve years when I wanted to be the president, I attempted three times.

‘’At the fourth attempt, through God and the use of technology, it was possible for Nigerians to elect an APC candidate as president.
“In my first attempt in 2003, I ended up at the Supreme Court and for 13 months I was in court.

“The second attempt in 2007, I was in court close to 20 months, and in 2011, my third attempt, I was also in court for nine months.

Read also: Views from abroad: Buhari curbs Nigeria’s Central Bank independence to save naira
“All these cases went up to the Supreme Court until the fourth time in 2015, when God agreed that I will be President of Nigeria,’’ he said.
Buhari assured members of the Nigerian community in Ethiopia that with the support of the Chief Justice of Nigeria, he would continue to do his best to improve the nation’s judicial administration system.

Speaking on the proposed N6.07 trillion 2016 budget, the president said that for the first time in Nigeria, the budget would be largely financed from non-oil revenue.
He identified the collapse of the international oil market and oil theft in the Niger Delta as main reasons for projecting more revenues to fund the budget from the non-oil sector.

He said that theft of oil by some Nigerians who felt that the oil belonged to them was irritating to ‘’those of us who participated in the civil war for 30 months in which at least two million Nigerians were killed.’’

Buhari explained that the proposed budget would focus on increasing efficiency and transparency in government operations and the blocking of leakages from revenue generating agencies.

He added that the recovered assets of the country would also be used to reduce the budget deficit.

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