By Uche Mbah
While many Nigerians seem to swing with the report of Transparency International, TI, that Nigeria has slipped downwards in the Corruption perception index, Presidency has blamed the rating on former President Olusegun Obasanjo and former World Vice President for West Africa, Oby Ezekwesili for the low rating.
Transparency international recently released their 2019 corruption perception index and rated sub Saharan Africa low. In the new report, Nigeria slipped two points to become number 146 out of 180 countries from the 2018 position, when the country was rated 144.
The organization said their report was based on reports gathered “from fraud that occurs at the highest levels of government to petty bribery that blocks access to basic public services like healthcare and education.” According to them, “citizens are fed up with corrupt leaders and institutions.”
The current rating was released in Berlin, Germany.
But Presidential Aid, Lauretta Onochie, laid the blame squarely on two individuals: former President Obasanjo and Oby Ezekwesili.
Onochie had uploaded their picture on her Twitter account and captioned it :”Here are the #AngryBirds who Founded Transparency International. Should we listen to them? NO! Should we lose sleep over their rating? NOPE! What should we do with their latest trash? BIN IT!”
Onochie, known for her controversial tweets in defense of the presidency, said that President Buhari is the “UNDISPUTED Anti Corruption Champion of Africa.”
The Economic and Financial Crimes Commission, EFCC, on their own part, rejected the rating.
In a statement by their spokesperson, Tony Orilade, the commission said the report ignores the giant strides made by the commission.
“We insist that the rating is a far cry from the evident strides and achievements so far accomplished by the anti-graft agency in the fight against corruption, particularly under the administration of President Muhammadu Buhari.
“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.
“Moreover, it is quite ironic that the report by TI posits that the index does not show real incidences of corruption, yet it claims that the report is a reliable indication of the perception of the Nigerian public and the international community about the state of corruption in the country.
“Suffice to state that in 2019 – the year under review by TI was particularly a remarkable one for the EFCC as the commission secured unprecedented record of 1,268 convictions, including that of a former state governor and a serving senator who was convicted for defrauding his state to the tune of N7.65billion. It was a landmark in the fight against corruption never achieved across the West African region, indeed, Africa at large. This is among several high-profile cases, which were successfully prosecuted during the year with many of them currently serving various jail terms.”
