Nigeria's minister of Information and Culture, Alhaji Lai Mohammed over the weekend in Abuja, said that government of the federation has done so much in its war to eradicate corruption and end insurgency. He further advised that the elites should not use agitation as a result of the current poor economic condition of the country to cause anarchy.

Lai Mohammed said it is not just talk about arresting corrupt individuals but changing the way Nigerians think and improving upon the economy. He said a programme called, "change begins with me," will be launched soon.

He said: "We did campaign majorly on creating jobs for our youth, building the economy, fighting corruption, and addressing insecurity. "I think so far we have done very well in the area of fighting insecurity and terrorism; we have done very well in fighting corruption.

"All Nigerians agree that corruption is one of the major ills of this society and one major achievement of this fight against corruption is for the first time in a long time people have begun to appreciate the fact that corruption is really an ill." While speaking on the agitation by some sections of the country, he named the protest as: "completely legitimate."

He further stated his views on the recent agitation in the Southeastern part of the country: "There are many political front-lines in Nigeria, religious, ethnic and the like but these things do not come to the fore until when there are serious economic problems like we are having today.

"I have listened to the complaints of many of these agitators and right down it is economic. They must understand too that but for this furtiveness of this administration, this country would have been by far much worse. "There is need for Nigerians to understand also that these are not ordinary times and that the government is not just making excuses.

"I appeal to our leaders not to exploit this situation to further destabilise Nigerians; our leaders should be courageous enough to come out and defend our unity.

"In the short term, it might be politically fashionable for them to be on the side of some agitators but in the long term, it is in the overall interest of Nigeria that we all understand our differences, respect them forge a united Nigeria.

"There will be no alternative to one united Nigeria."

It should be noted that Nigeria's former Ambassador to Spain and wife of the late Biafra warlord, Bianca Ojukwu spoke advising against agitation as she urged Nigerians on things to do in order to move the country forward.