Femi Adesina, special adviser to the president on media and publicity, has stated that the Transparency International (TI) report on corruption in Nigeria is unacceptable.
In an interview on Channels Television’s Sunrise Daily on Wednesday, Buhari’s aide, Adesina, responded to the latest TI corruption perception index.
According to Adesina, the Buhari administration’s anti-corruption campaign does not require the approval of TI.
Nigeria now ranks 154th out of 180 countries in the 2021 corruption perception index, down from 149th in the 2020 index.
The report, according to Adesina, should be ignored because it contains foreign statistics with little validity. He went on to say that corruption is a global issue that is not limited to Nigeria.
“We don’t need TI’s report to authenticate or validate what government is doing. Government is working and anti-corruption is one of the key pillars of this administration,” Adesina said.
“Globally there’s no place that has eradicated corruption. It is a national issue. This administration is fighting corruption and we are getting results.
“I cannot rate the corruption of the country, rather Nigerians should rate the government.”
He stated that the Buhari administration has fought corruption and that all anti-corruption agencies are working to reduce corruption in the country.
“The EFCC reported that they had over 2,000 convictions last year alone. We have moved from a time that stealing is not corruption to now that stealing is corruption,” Adesina said.
“The government has fought corruption very well. We have statistics from all the agencies made up to fight corruption and they give reports from time to time.”
Adesina went on to say that such accusations should be made by Nigerians, not by foreign sources.
“Now what would you rather believe, the information from your country or information from outside. It depends on the statistics TI is using but we know corruption is being fought in Nigeria,” he said.
“Also when such reports come, if we would believe such report, it is not an indictment of the government, rather it is rather an indictment of you and me because we constitute the country.”
