Although initially rattled by the new corruption rating, Nigeria has boastfully said that it could not be distracted by Transparency International (TI) which ranked the nation low in its latest international Corruption Perception index.
The government, through its Information and Culture Minister Lai Mohammed on Wednesday described the ranking as “baseless”.
The minister had so far engaged with international media outfits where he reacted to TI’s January 23, 2020 ranking, which placed Nigeria 146th out of the 180 countries in 2019.
Nigeria’s score of 26 out of 100 points is below the global average of 43 with many African countries ranking higher than Nigeria on anti-corruption war.
Mohammed said the government was unhappy about the development saying: “In any event, we are not fighting corruption because we want to impress any organisation.
“We are fighting corruption because we believe that without fighting the menace, the much sought development will not happen and we have results to show for fighting corruption.’’
The government, he restated, had put in place, policies and legislations that have tamed corruption.
“We will continue to fight corruption and we know that we are winning the war,” he said.
The minister stressed that for the first time in the history of the country, high profile people have been convicted of corruption charges.
“For those who say that the anti-corruption fight is selective, how do you say that when serving Senators and past governors, who were members of the ruling party are now serving jail terms,’” he said
Three former governors of the ruling All Progressives Congress (APC) have been jailed for corruption.
No fewer than 22 former governors, many lawmakers and high profile politicians are facing either being prosecuted or investigated over corruption.
Nigerians, he said, should continue to support and encourage the government in the fight against corruption and disregard the baseless rating of the TI.
MM/GIK/APA