Blame Nigerian people, not Buhari’s govt for poor Amnesty Int’l corruption ranking— Adesina

Femi Adesina, Special Adviser to President Muhammadu Buhari on Media and Publicity, says the Nigerian people and not Buhari’s government should be blamed for the country’s poor ranking in Transparency International’s (TI) Corruption Perception Index (CPI).

Recall that in TI’s 2017 ranking, Nigeria dropped from 136 in 2016 to 148 on the index.

Speaking during a Channels Television’s programme on Monday, Adesina said, contrary to the widely held view that it reflected poorly on the government, the ranking was more about Nigerians than the government.

“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 government, I don’t agree.

“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”, Adesina said.

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He also dismissed the ranking, saying it was not needed to measure the current administration’s progress in the anti-graft war.

“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 it’s not something that will be a milestone round the neck of government”, he said.

 

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