President Muhammadu Buhari, yesterday, said in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia, stated that he needed the support of the judiciary to win the anti-graft war while recalling that corruption in the judiciary stalled his presidential ambition for years.
He further said that the judiciary remained his main headache in the fight against corruption and promised to overhaul the country’s judicial system.
According to him, corruption is so pervasive in the country that it requires the strong support of the judiciary to effectively fight.
This was even as he showed his anger to the tribal claims and theft of oil by some individuals in the Niger Delta.
President Buhari, who spoke at a town hall meeting with Nigerians living in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia, yesterday, 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 12 years when I wanted to be the President, I attempted three times and on 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.
“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.”
President Buhari, while defending the N6.077 trillion 2016 budget, which is now before the National Assembly, also stated that the budget would be financed from non-oil revenue.
He regretted that the international oil market had collapsed, resulting in poor income for the country. The President, however, said that he was not happy with claims and theft of oil resources persisting in the Niger Delta.
“The theft of the oil market by some Nigerians that happen to live there who feel that the oil belongs to them and not the country is an irritating thing for those of us who participated in the civil war for 30 months in which at least two million Nigerians were killed,” he said.
The President also said 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.