From Juliana Taiwo-Obalonye, Abuja
The Federal Government, yesterday, said it was not fighting corruption to impress anyone.
Minister of Information and Culture, Lai Mohammed, stated this against the backdrop of the 2022 Corruption Perception Index released by Transparency International (TI), in which Nigeria maintained its 2021 score of 24 out of 100 points, while ranking 150 among 180 countries.
Mohammed, while reacting to the latest ranking released by TI said President Muhammadu Buhari’s administration has demonstrated the political will to confront corruption going by the high profile persons that have been arrested and the legacy projects that the returned Abacha’s loot have been channeled to.
TI had said its tool for measuring the level of corruption in the systems of the 180 countries across the world were based on certain prevalent indices. Among them bribery, diversion of public funds, public officials using public office for private gain without consequences, ability of governments to contain corruption and enforce effective integrity mechanisms in the public sector, red tape and excessive bureaucratic burden, among others.
Mohammed said: “With regards to the second question on Transparency International rating of Nigeria, our position is the same. We are not fighting corruption because we want to impress Transparency International or any organisation 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 political. 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 be it. However, I can assure you that we do not know what template TI is using. Whatever template they’re using is clearly oblivious of what this administration is doing to fight corruption.”