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The Attorney General of the Federation and the minister of Justice, Abubakar Malami and the Economic and Financial Crime Commission (EFCC) combined have kicked against the claim of the Transparency International of 2019 report which places Nigeria poorly on the anti corruption fight.


According to the Transparency, who claimed to be a watchdog, Nigeria dropped by two steps from 144 to 146 positions out of the 180 countries surveyed by the organisation?


In the 2019 Transparency International’s corruption perception index released on Thursday, the Organisation claimed Nigeria scored 26 out of 100 points, the result which dropped by one point compared to that of year 2018. In the country comparison, saying Nigeria now ranks 146 out of 180 countries – two places down compared to 2018 results.


The Organisation claim against Nigeria has elicits a lot of debate from the arms of government that are saddled with the assignment of fighting corruption.


Accordingly, President Muhammadu Buhari cardinal objective during his campaign before coming to office in 2015, fighting corruption was one of his three campaign points; the other two were repositioning the economy and securing life and properties.
In his reaction, Malami said the international body’s claim has no truth to back it as the figures were concocted.


During an interview with channel Television’s Lunch Time Politics, on Thursday, Malami said the information they dished out has failed in all ramification with what is obtainable on ground.


In his statement; “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.


He explained “Our resolve to fight corruption is inherent and indeed devoid of any extraneous considerations, we will continue to do more and we will double efforts.”


The Minister of Justice challenged the Transparency International to make available the statistics tht lead them to making their conclusion about the Nigerian resolve in fighting corruption.


Malami said there is no stone left unturned by the Nigerian government in the fight against corruption.


He said in both the legislation and enforcement the government have done much in recovering looted funds, saying Nigerians can attest to that considering their political will.


In a similar the EFCC also in its statement condemned the report saying it was all hoax from the International body to spew lies into public like this.


The statement was contained in a communiqué saying; “The claim and inference by TI that Nigeria ranks the fourth most corrupt country in West Africa is totally unacceptable, as it is evidently not supported by any empirical data, especially when placed side-by-side with the remarkable achievements of the Commission in the past years,” the EFCC said.


The EFCC said it would not allow itself to be distracted by such cheap claim by the Transparency international, saying it has always been their way to sway public with concocted reports.


In a reaction, the Peoples Democratic Party said the report was a national embarrassment to the government under the African union (AU) Anti-Corruption champion to fall short.


The party said it speak volume on the government which was hinged on anti-corruption mantra to be labelled as the most corrupt.

 

 

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