I Blame Nigerians For Nigeria’s Poor Rating On Corruption – Femi Adesina

The federal government has blamed Nigerians for Nigeria’s poor ranking on corruption.

Nigeria has been ranking low in the fight against anti-graft practices since the President Muhammadu Buhari administration took over the affairs of the country. Several corruption allegations raised against its officials and allies have often been swept under the carpet with little or no action to deal with the alleged culprits.

Transparency International (TI), a global civil society organization leading the fight against corruption, in its latest report said the country index position on its table dropped from 136 in 2016 to 148 in 2017.

For an administration that prides itself of fighting corruption, the ranking was seen as a blow to their efforts to get rid of graft practices in the country.

Blaming Nigerians for the poor rating, a presidential spokesman, Femi Adesina, said the rating is about how corrupt Nigerians were as the government does not deserve a fair share of the blame.

Exonerating his principal, Mr. Adesina chided TI for the ranking, saying the country does not need it to verify whatever effort the current administration is making in anti-graft war.

“My position is that that ranking is not strictly about government, it is about Nigeria and her people. Some people want to make it seem as if it is a vote of no confidence in government or a lower mark for the government, I don’t agree,” Adesina said on Monday while featuring in a programme on Channels Television.

“I think it is a lower mark for the people because the people constitute the country. And I think if things do not seem to have worked as they should work, the people also have part of the brunt; they have part of the blame to bear.

“As much as I respect Transparency International, I don’t think we necessarily need them to authenticate what is going on in the country because we Nigerians know that there is a war against corruption ongoing and that war is succeeding.

There are strides being taken. We may not be there yet but we are on our way there.

“So, let no agency from any part of the world come to think that whatever it says is the gospel to us. It can help, it can inform what is happening but its, not something that will be a millstone around the neck of government.”