Nigeria Not Fighting Corruption to Impress Transparency International, Says Lai Mohammed

Minister of Information and Culture, Alhaji Lai Mohammed has lampooned the Transparency International insisting that the federal government does not seek to impress any organisation with its anti-corruption fight. 

Mohammed was reacting to the Transparency International (TI) corruption index which ranked Nigeria 146 of 180 countries, with a total of 26 points out of a possible 100 points.

Speaking with some international media organisations in London on Tuesday, Mohammed said the federal government picked up the fight against corruption in order to see to the development of the nation.

The minister added that the government is winning the war against corruption.

“In any event, we are not fighting corruption because we want to impress any organization,” Mohammed said. “We are fighting corruption because we believed that without fighting the menace, the much-sought development will not happen and we have results to show for fighting corruption.

“We have put in place policies and legislation that have tamed the monster called corruption. For instance, apart from the TSA which has saved us billions of Naira, we put in place transparency portal which enables every Nigerians to see how much is being spent by government every day.

“Under the transparency portal regulation, any expenditure above N5 billion must be reported and that gives every Nigerian the opportunity to know exactly what is going on.

“We will continue to fight corruption and we know that we are winning the war.”

On claims that the federal government is selective in its prosecution of persons perceived as corrupt, Mohammed asked: “How do you say that when serving senators and past governors who were members of the ruling party are now serving jail terms?”

According to Mohammed, President Muhammadu Buhari won his election in 2015 based on his promise to fight corruption and that he was re-elected because of his achievements in that regard.

He, therefore, called on Nigerians to continue to support and encourage the government in the fight against corruption and disregard the “baseless” rating by TI