Media aide to President Muhammadu Buhari, Garba Shehu, has said Nigerians should be ashamed that the country is still ranked among the most corrupt nations in the world despite Buhari's efforts to rid the corrupt of such negative image.
Shehu who made the statement on Channels Television’s Sunrise Daily programme on Monday, said the current ranking which places the country at 149 out of 180 corrupt nations in the world, and the second most corrupt nation in West Africa, is a reflection of the rest of the population and not Buhari himself.
Shehu said, “I’ll tell you that this one by TI is not a judgment on Buhari or his administration or its war against corruption, I will tell you that this one is judgement on Nigerians because if you look at the indices, they used at arriving at these conclusions, they used eight indices, six of which showed Nigeria as being more or less Nigeria in the same position.
“The two that they dwelled on, that caused this backslide, are essentially Nigerian problems. They’re talking about the political culture of this country, vote-buying, thuggery. Is it Buhari that is a thug? We’re not doing thuggery.
“And when they talk about the justice sector, they are talking about perceived corruption in the judiciary. These perceptions are essentially not correct. Yes, there are issues in that sector but so many changes are going on in that sector wouldn’t it have been nice if they acknowledged it so that you encourage those judicial officers that are upright and then the system gets better.”
Shehu has previously questioned the credibility of report by Transparency International (TI), saying the Buhari administration is not "unaware of the characters behind the TI in Nigeria whose opposition to the Buhari administration is not hidden."
He said, ”We are currently analyzing the sources of data used in arriving at the latest Transparency International (TI) report on Corruption Perceptions Index in Nigeria since by their own admission, they don’t gather their own data.
”This report is not an accurate portrayal of the facts on ground.
”In the coming days, the Government’s Technical Unit on Governance Research (TUGAR) will be providing more detailed information on the sources of the TI data.
”While this is being awaited, the examination carried out on their 2019 report showed that 60 percent of their data was collected from businesses and other entities with issues bordering on transparency and the ease of doing business at the ports.
”Although this is a government ready to learn from mistakes and make corrections, the economy of this country, in its fullness, is bigger than the sea ports we have.
”We are also not unaware of the characters behind the TI in Nigeria whose opposition to the Buhari administration is not hidden.
”We have repeatedly challenged TI to provide indices and statistics of its own to justify its sensational and baseless rating on Nigeria and the fight against corruption.
”We expect them to come clean and desist from further rehashing of old tales,” he said.