President Goodluck Jonathan revealed his fiery side at his re-election campaign in Lagos on Thursday, January 8.

He addressed the crowd which gathered at the Tafawa Balewa Square with fury and indirectly threw jabs at the opposition – the All Progressive Congress (APC) presidential candidate, Muhammadu Buhari.

In his 33-minute speech, Jonathan’s utterances centered more on responses to criticisms of his administration by some prominent Nigerians and the opposition.

We now bring you 18 quotes from the President’s speech:

1. “They said they will start fighting corruption after they have crossed the bridge. And 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 stop corruption but I will not do so by catching people and putting them in crates and jailing or killing them. We can’t stop corruption that way.”

2. “They want power by all means. All they want to use power for is to lock up and imprison their enemies.”

3. If Buhari had effectively fought corruption between 1983 and 1985 when he was Head of State, Nigeria would not be grappling with graft today.”

4. “Instead of fighting corruption by making arrests, I would structure Nigeria in such a way that people holding public offices would no longer have direct access to funds.”

5.  On delay in paying federal civil servants’ December salaries – “I apologise to those families that suffered because I believe that for you to fight corruption, you must take some measures such as establishing institutions. You don’t just wake up, enter the streets and start arresting people and showing them on television sets and saying you are fighting corruption.”

6.  “If they had succeeded in fighting corruption, corruption would not have been with us today. If they had set up structures to manage resources, in this ICT era, we would not have been talking about corruption today.”

7.  “I served in Bayelsa State as deputy governor and governor for eight years and then vice president and president for another four years. Within these periods,   fertiliser distribution was an area where both the federal and state governments spent billions of naira. Less than 10 per cent of the product got to farmers while the rest was stolen and sent out of the country. Even the 10 per cent was sometimes adulterated. “What did we do? We assembled some young Nigerians that are IT gurus and developed what we call the Electronic Wallet. Through the wallet, farmers got fertiliser directly and nobody is cheating the government again. Is that not a way to stop corruption?”

8. “If somebody tells you that the best way to fight corruption is to come and arrest your mother and father and show them on   television,   will that   stop corruption? In fact, it will even encourage corruption. We are shooting armed robbers but is that stopping them? So, arresting people and showing them on television sets will do nothing. We must set up institutions and strengthen them in order to prevent people from stealing public money. That is what we are working on and we are succeeding.”

9.  “They say the government is weak and have no plan. They say we are weak because they took our fathers, mothers and uncles and drugged and put them in crates before flying them to Nigeria. They were intercepted mid-air by superior powers. That even blocked Nigerians from even going to Britain at a time. The relationship between Nigeria and Britain went sour and the whole world isolated Nigeria . They say that is the way to fight corruption. So the moment I suspect your uncle (of corruption), I can crate him and send them to Kirikiri (prisons).  Is that the way to stop corruption?”

10.  “I served with (former President Umaru)Yar’Adua and he stood by due process and I also stand by due process.”

11.  “Any country that does not obey the rule of law is a jungle. Do you want Nigeria to be a jungle ? “Immediately I suspect you of doing something wrong, I will call the police and the army and throw you into jail. Is that the kind of country you want? They said to be strong is to jail people indiscriminately for 300 years. Is that the way to go? A country is like an industry, it must be managed properly by people who have grey and white matters upstairs.”

12. “They talked about insecurity. Are Nigerians in the armed forces weak? The problem is that we don’t have platforms (equipment) and somebody who wakes up and tells young people   that they want to fight insecurity, ask him:   Did he buy one rifle for a Nigerian soldier?

13. “These people did not buy anything; they refused to equip the military and there were no helicopters; nothing. Ask them what they did with their defence budgets and the whole time they could not equip the military.”

14. “No country equips its military overnight . Armed forces are built over the years because even if you spend $10bn today, you cannot equip the Air Force, the Navy and   the Army. They refused to build their capacity, they instigated crisis and now they are telling you they can fight insecurity.”

15. “They said the military is corrupt. When this insecurity started, we had nothing so to tackle it very quickly, we used vendors to get equipment.   But now, we are doing government to government arrangement and so there is nothing like corruption anymore. Is that not the way to fight corruption? You must prevent people from touching public money.”

16.  “Those of my age and above are finished; we are gone. That is why I am addressing those of you that are voting for the first time. We believe it is you that will take us to the moon. My generation has failed, we couldn’t take Nigeria to the moon.”

17.  “Look at what India is doing? I said for us to get to the moon, our first class graduates should be sent to the best 25 universities in the world for postgraduate studies.”

18. “So you must vote wisely. They will build prisons for you but I will build universities for you. I will build primary schools and secondary schools”