Special Assistant to President Muhammadu Buhari on Media and Publicity, Femi Adesina, says the negative corruption rating of the Transparency International which placed Nigeria on the second most corrupt country in Africa is an indictment on the citizens and not on the government.
The Transparency International rating also placed Nigeria on 24 points out of 100 available points, to drop in its ranking.
However, Adesina, in an interview on Channels TV ‘Sunrise Daily’ monitored by NRTC, said that the Transparency International’s report was an “indictment on all Nigerians, and not the Federal Government led by President Muhammadu Buhari alone.”
Nonetheless, he stated that the index does not reflect the Federal Government’s stance and fight against corruption in all facets of the public sector.
“My attitude to reports like that remains the same. We don’t need such reports to validate whatever FG is doing and anti-corruption is one of the core pledges of this administration.
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“Would you rather believe the reports about arrests by EFCC or a foreign organization? Corruption is being tackled by this administration.
“Such reports are not an indictment of the administration but of the average Nigerian like you and me.
“There is no country that has succeeded in eliminating corruption as obtains in a country that executes such criminals and continues to execute.
“The scourge is a problem anywhere that this administration has continued to tackle. Once you are indicted, the judiciary takes over such cases without interference from the executive.
“This administration has done very well with statistics from Economic and Financial Crimes Commission, Independent Corrupt Practices Commission, Code of Conduct Bureau to back it up,” Adesina noted.
