Despite Nigeria’s poor TI corruption ranking, Buhari says he’s winning fight against graft

Photo Credit: Guardian Nigeria

President Muhammadu Buhari on Thursday asserted that his administration was winning its ongoing war against corruption, despite a recent ranking by Transparency International, TI, report which showed that Nigeria did not make any progress in its corruption perception in 2017.

CRISPNG recalls that the Corruption Perception Index compiled by TI and published on February 22 said Nigeria ranked 146 out of 180 countries sampled in 2017 — dropping 12 positions against 2016.

But speaking in a statement through his Senior Special Assistant on Media and Publicity, Garba Shehu, while receiving a Qatari business delegation led by the former Emir, Sheikh Hamad Al-Thani, at the Presidential Villa, Abuja, Buhari insists the fight against graft in the country has so far achieved positive results.

His words: “My administration’s economic agenda has always been to move away from over-reliance on crude oil and food importation.

“Nigeria is a blessed country. We have fertile land. We have a young and energetic population and we have a very strong legal and regulatory system that protects capital and investments, both local and foreign.

“As you are aware, Nigeria just exited its worst recession in more than two decades.  We have more than doubled our foreign reserves.

“We are winning the war against corruption. We are developing our infrastructure and we are enforcing the rule of law.

“As a result of this, we are seeing significant growth in the non-oil sector which is creating thousands of jobs across the country.”