President Muhammadu Buhari on Thursday described corruption as the worst among the numerous problems confronting the country.
A statement issued by his Special Adviser on Media and Publicity, Femi Adesina, said President Buhari spoke while receiving the two recipients of the 2016 Nigerian National Order of Merit at the Presidential Villa, Abuja.
“Nobody disputed the fact that they (insecurity, poor economy and corruption) were the major problems of Nigeria, and we campaigned on those three planks,” he said.
“As a government, we believe you cannot administer a country you have not secured, so we focused on security.
“The economy is also down, therefore, we are not sparing any effort to revive and diversify it, so that our people, particularly the youths, can get jobs.
“The third problem, and the worst of them all, is corruption.”
The President disclosed that Nigerian was in a terrible shape when his administration came into power in 2015, with oil prices falling to as low as $37 per barrel, from peak periods of over $100 in previous years.
‘‘There was no money in the treasury. We were producing less than one million barrels of oil per day, from the 2.2 million barrels we used to do. The country was in a terrible shape, but luckily, the people understand, and are cooperating with us,” he told his guests.