Corruption, the hydra headed monster, believed to be the nation’s number one malaise has once again, became a topical issue of contention among political gladiators barely 6 weeks to the 2015 election as Nigerians watched with bated breath the unfolding scenario.

The President, Dr Goodluck Jonathan may have unknowingly shot himself in the foot during his New Year message to the nation where he announced a new strategy to tackle corruption.

It is on record that the Jonathan’s administration in the past six years had been strongly criticized for its inability to tackle corruption with all the political will required to stop thee trend while the President seems to have relegated the issue of corruption to the background.

This is as the President had in the recent past made copious remarks that the issue of corruption is largely the citizens’ perception blown out of proportion with a caveat that ‘stealing is not corruption’.

Also, at the just concluded World Economic Forum in Davos Switzerland, the President, while making his contribution to a televised debate titled: ‘Africa Next Billions’ was reported to have told his audience that corruption is not the cause of all the problems confronting Africa but that Boko Haram  is the biggest challenge in Nigeria at the moment.

However, the reality of corruption as a serious national problem soon dawned on the President as the opposition anchored its campaign promises on how to stop corruption at all levels if voted into power.

The development has therefore put Jonathan on the defensive as he announced a ‘new strategy’ to tackle the menace.

According to him, the new approach does not involve arresting corrupt individuals and putting them on television set for the country to see, adding that the new strategy will involve ‘strengthening institution to be better able to tackle the malaise as well as setting up plans that will detect an individual and punish them’.

The President new approach to fighting corruption however, appears incongruous with a more radical approach being proposed by the opposition All Progressives Congress (APC).

It would be recalled that the party’s presidential candidate, General Muhammadu Buhari at the flag off of his campaign last week, promised to jail all corrupt politicians if he wins the February 14 presidential election.

According to the former military Head of State: “When we come into power, anyone who steals Nigeria’s money, will end up in Kirikiri Maximum Prisons. We are going to make sure that Nigeria’s wealth belongs only to Nigerians"

But in a swift reaction, Jonathan, who faulted Buhari on his proposed line of action said he would not fight corruption by arresting and putting people in crates. He stated this in Lagos at the official commencement of his presidential campaign

The President was indirectly making reference to Buhari’s role in the 1984 botched attempt to smuggle a former Minister of Transport, late Umaru Dikko to Nigeria from Britain.

‘Only two days ago, somebody stood in Port Harcourt, Rivers State and said he would catch people that steal and throw them in Kirikiri Prisons.

“I agree that we must fight corruption, but I will not do so by catching people and putting them in crates and jailing and killing them. We can’t stop corruption that way’. The President remarked.

 In a related development, the APC virtually went all out to carpet President Jonathan saying by the statement, “The President has finally admitted that the two main challenges facing the country are corruption and insecurity and seems to be telling Nigerians to give him more time to tackle the problems”.

“It says, “But the truth is that he lacks the capacity to fight and defeat these challenges, whether in six or ten years”.   According to the APC through its National Publicity Secretary, Lai Mohammed, “A President who has spent the last six years trying to diagnose the main problems facing the country will apparently need another four years to tackle the challenges. By then, all of us would have been buried under the rubble of corruption and our country would have been decimated by insecurity.

“It is therefore time for Nigerians to vote in a President who will hit the ground running, a president who will tackle the problems of corruption and security headlong without giving excuses for failure”

The party added that the institutions to tackle corruption are already in place but have been rendered ineffective

“Mr President said he wants to put in place the institutions to tackle corruption before taking the cankerworm that has almost destroyed the fabric of our society. Pray; whatever happened to the EFCC and ICPC?. Were they not institutions specifically created for the purpose of tackling corruption, but which the Jonathan administration chose to castrate?

‘There is no better way to say this: President Jonathan lacks the political will to tackle corruption and he will not tackle it if he spends 60 years in office”

Itse Sagay, a Professor of Law and Public Affairs analyst in a reaction faulted the claim that corruption is not Nigeria’s number one problem.

He stated this in a letter titled: ‘Dear President Jonathan, corruption is the bane of Nigeria’

In the letter, the erudite lawyer said: “The President has completely erased any iota of doubt that he has a thorough grasp of critical issues like the prevalent endemic corruption now crippling governance that demands his urgent attention as president of Nigeria and frontline leader on the continent”

According to him, “His comments are coming at a time that allegations of corruption against officials of his administration are mounting. The Stella Oduah’s BMW scandal is still very fresh in our memory.

“With his latest misstatement making national headlines, he reminds us of the fifth presidential media chat of September 29, 2013 where he said that Nigeria’s corruption was merely a perception which is grossly exaggerated

“Deflecting international attention from sleaze is the least expected at a time the country needed consistent and dogged fight against this monster” Sagay added

But in what appears a vindication of Jonathan’s precarious situation on the endemic corruption in the country, former Military President, Gen. Ibrahim Babangida (retd), has said that he should be regarded as a saint given the level of corruption that pervades the Nigerian society today.

Babangida, who left power 25 years ago also scored himself high in the management of the economy during the eight-year period of his administration, claiming that he actually worked hard to end the menace of corruption rather than promote it.

The former military dictator’s assertion came on the heels of widespread public opinion that his government laid the foundation for massive corruption which successive governments built upon

Nevertheless, Babangida in a recent interview insisted that those who held contrary opinion about the activities of his regime did so out of ignorance of what he did while in office.

He stated: “Maybe I have to accept that but anybody with a sense of fairness has no option but to call us saints. I give you an example, in a year; I was making less than $7 billion in oil revenue but in the same period there were governments that were making between $200 billion and $300 billion.

Perhaps, one Nigerian who held a contrary view on the endemic corruption in the country is elder statesman and Second Republic House of Representatives, Hon Adekunle Alli.

 He spoke to Saturday Mirror in a telephone interview during the week. According to him; “Corruption is a monster which cannot be solved immediately or once and for all. I don’t see any man who can put a stop to it immediately even Buhari can only try because the entire society is corrupt.

“I cannot even exclude myself because I belong to the society. Even if I say I am not going to involve others are ready to engage in it, then one would be a lone wolf or else you will have to find another society for yourself. It requires a long time solution, changing peoples’ habits, changing people’s orientation and thinking.

For the octogenarian politician, the solution to the cankerworm may take place in another generation adding that the President has not really addressed the issue

“But for President to say that he is going to re-strategize, it means he has not even began to curb the habit which eventually will kill the society. The people who are to enforce it are also part of the problem, the police, the judiciary, tell me or the military. So for me, it may not be in this generation that the answer would come. It would come gradually over the years”

As the campaigns are ongoing, one major topical issue that will continue to dominate the political discourse is corruption and the solutions proffered by all the contending forces