‎Presidency blames Nigerians for poor ranking on TI corruption index

‎The Presidency on Monday blamed Nigerians for the country’s poor ranking on Transparency International’s 2020 Corruption Perception Index.

Nigeria scored 25 out of 100 countries in TI’s latest corruption ranking, making the country the second most corrupt nation in West Africa after being ranked 149 out of 180 countries.

‎Senior Special Assistant to the President on Media and Publicity, Garba Shehu, who spoke on Channels Television’s Sunrise Daily programme on Monday, ‎said the ranking was a reflection of corruption by Nigerians and not by the Buhari administration.

Shehu said, “‎I will tell you that this one by TI is not a judgment on Buhari or his administration or its war against corruption, I will tell you that this one is a judgment on Nigerians because if you look at the indices they used at arriving at these conclusions, they used eight indices, six of which showed Nigeria as being more or less Nigeria in the same position.

“The two that they dwelled on, that caused this backslide, are essentially Nigerian problems. They’re talking about the political culture of this country, vote-buying, thuggery. Is it Buhari that is a thug? We’re not doing thuggery.

“And when they talk about the justice sector, they are talking about perceived corruption in the judiciary. These perceptions are essentially not correct. Yes, there are issues in that sector but so many changes are going on in that sector wouldn’t it have been nice if they acknowledged it so that you encourage those judicial officers that are upright, and then the system gets getting better.”

However, TI had explained that Nigeria’s ranking was based on acts of ‎corruption in the public sector, including bribery, diversion of public funds, use of public office for private gain and nepotism.‎