The Federal Government has berated Transparency International for naming Nigeria as the second most corrupt country in West Africa.
The Attorney General of the Federation and Minister of Justice, Abubakar Malami (SAN), said there was no evidence to back the report by TI which placed Nigeria at 146 out of the 180 countries on the 2019 corruption perception index.
Nigeria was named the second most corrupt country in West Africa only ahead of Guinea Bissau.
Groups, including the Peoples Democratic Party and Socio-Economic Rights and Accountability Project, said the rating was an indication that the President, Major General Muhammadu Buhari’s (retd.) anti-corruption war had failed.
Rating has no bearing with reality — Malami
In an interview on Channels Television’s LunchTime Politics on Thursday, Malami said the TI’s report had no bearing on reality.
He said, “In terms of the fight against corruption, we have been doing more, we have done more and we will continue to do more out of inherent conviction and desire on our part to fight against corruption devoid of any extraneous considerations relating to the rating by Transparency International.
“Our resolve to fight corruption is inherent and indeed devoid of any extraneous considerations, we will continue to do more and we will redouble our efforts.”
Malami said there was nothing that had not been done as a nation in the fight against corruption.
Nigeria has slipped on the TI’s Corruption Perception Index 2019, scoring 26 per cent.
Nigeria scored 27 out of 100 in TI’s 2018 report but dropped by a point in 2019, making Africa’s most populous country take the 146th position.
The TI’s latest report states that Africa’s most populous country, like most other countries in Sub-Saharan nations, has continued to witness a high rate of corruption which had worsened due to vote buying.
The report shows that despite the corruption war being championed by Buhari in the last four and a half years, Nigeria has failed to score higher than 28 per cent.
Nigeria scored 28 out of 100 in 2016 and 2017 but fell in 2018 to 27 and fell further to 26 in 2019.
In the latest report, Nigeria scored the same as Iran, Honduras, Guatemala, Bangladesh, Mozambique and Angola.
Out of 180 countries surveyed, Nigeria scored better than only 28.
They include Comoros, Cameroon, Central African Republic, Uzbekistan, Tajikistan, Madagascar, Zimbabwe, Eritrea, Nicaragua, Cambodia, Chad, Iraq, Burundi, Congo, Turkmenistan, Haiti, Democratic Republic of Congo, Libya, Guinea-Bissau, North Korea, Venezuela, Equatorial Guinea, Sudan, Afghanistan, Yemen, Syria, South Sudan and Somalia.
The TI survey measures public sector corruption in 180 countries.
The countries with the highest scores were New Zealand and Denmark which both scored 87 out of 100.
Others that were highly placed include Finland (86), Switzerland (85), Singapore (85), Sweden (85), Norway (84), Netherlands (82), Luxembourg (80) and Germany (80).
TI report validates our stand — PDP
The PDP, in a statement on Thursday by its spokesman, Kola Ologbondiyan, said the rating validated its position that corruption had worsened under Buhari.
The PDP described as a national embarrassment that under an administration by the same leader who wore the medal as “African Union Anti-Corruption Champion” and whose government boasted of zero tolerance for corruption, Nigeria ranked the second most corrupt country in West Africa.
He said the PDP had since been challenging the Buhari Presidency and the APC to come clean, account for the over N14tn allegedly stolen by the APC leaders from government coffers in the last four years.
(Punch)