Presidency replies TI: We’re not battling corruption in Nigeria to impress anybody

The presidency has reacted to the corruption perception index of Transparency International TI, which indicated that Nigeria dropped four points backward in its anti-corruption policy.

Minister of Information and Culture, Lai Mohammed, reacted in defence of the ruling All Progressive Congress (APC) administration on Wednesday, shortly after the Federal Executive Council meeting, presided over by President Muhammadu Buhari at the State House, Abuja.

According to Mohammed, the war against graft in Nigeria was not to please or impress Transparency International under any guise whatsoever.

It would be recalled that Transparency International through its intermediary in Nigeria, the Civil Society Legislative Advocacy Centre, CISLAC, had alleged that Nigeria dropped from 150 positions to 154 in the global ranking scale of corruption index for the year 2022.

It hinged it on several issues ranging from freeing individuals, especially politicians that had been jailed for corrupt practices.

The global graft agency also beamed its rating on the opaqueness in budgetary allocations and implementation, including bureaucratic and administrative wastages in the public sector.

The Information and Culture Minister also faulted the rating parameters of the TI, insisting that the battle against graft was not just synonymous with arresting and trying suspects or persons culpable in such crimes.

He said, “With regards to the question on Transparency International rating of Nigeria, our position is the same. We are not fighting corruption because we want to impression Transparency International or any organization whatsoever.

“We’re fighting corruption because we believe if we do not fight corruption; there’ll be no growth either in terms of the economy or even politics. Therefore, what we do and what we’re putting in place to fight corruption is not because we want to be rated by anybody. If, for instance, what we’re doing catches the attention of Transparency International and they improve and give us better marks, so we’ll go.

“However, I can assure you that we do not know what template TI is using. Whatever template they’re using is oblivious to what this administration is doing to fight corruption.

“Corruption fighting is not just by how many people have you arrested; how many people have you tried;  and how many people have you convicted. Of course, even in that respect, we have a very impressive record.

“I’ll just give you two examples, for instance, this administration when funds were returned from the Abacha loot and other funds were recovered from the USD, the UK and Europe, what this administration did was that rather than pay these funds into the treasury and face the possibility of it being stolen or being relooted, the administration decided that we will put this money into a separate account and ask the  National Sovereign Investment Fund to manage these funds, and we used this money for specific projects”.

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