Femi Adesina, spokesman of President Muhammadu Buhari, says Nigerians share in the blame of the country’s bad ranking in Transparency International’s (TI) corruption perception index (CPI).
In 2017, Nigeria dropped from 136 in 2016 to 148 on the index of TI.
The ranking was seen as a blow to the current administration which claims to have the fight against corruption as one of its core mandates.
But speaking during a Channels Television’s programme on Monday, Adesina said the ranking is about Nigerians and not the federal 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,” he said.
“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.”
He also chided TI for the ranking, saying the country does not need it to verify whatever effort the current administration is making in 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,” he said.
“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.”