Appraising Our War Against Corruption

This Transparency International, the global anti-corruption watchdog, is very wicked and mischievous. Why will they compare us with the dark days of the PDP, giving the world the impression that our fight against corruption has not been making progress?

Why, in spite of all our efforts, will Transparency International, make us repeat the same class by consistently scoring us as low as 27% out of 100, for two consecutive years, making us look as if we are dullards, unable to learn?

According to the Transparency International, Nigeria’s corruption perception index has been hovering from 26% to 27% between 2014 and 2018, which means that there seems to be no much difference between the years of the PDP and those of the APC.

In its report for 2017, Transparency International said that Nigeria occupied the position of 148 out of 184 countries sampled in its corruption perception index, and with a score of 27% over 100, while in 2018, the figure changed slightly to 144 out of the same 184 countries sampled, but still maintained the score of 27%.

According to the group, the 144 position occupied by Nigeria in 2018 was not because the country had made any progress, otherwise the score would have changed. The reason, according to it, was because there were some countries which did not do very well and therefore moved down.

We totally do not agree with this report. It is biased. We suspect that it was the PDP that helped them put together this jaundiced report, after all, one of those instrumental to the founding of this body is Olusugen Obasanjo, who now postures and campaigns for the PDP, even though he claimed not to belong to any political party.

How can Transparency International claim that we are not making progress in our fight against corruption? This is not fair. Are they deaf and blind, or closed their ears and shut their eyes to the billions of naira which we have been recovering from corrupt politicians in this country?

Since 2015, when we came on board, we have never rested on our oars in bringing to book those who stole our money, our national wealth. We have jailed many of them and recovered their loot. This has made many of them to now run away from the corrupt PDP to moved to us in the APC where their sins have been thoroughly washed away.

The implication therefore, is that since majority of Nigerians are now in the APC, remaining a tiny corrupt people in the PDP, the country has significantly progressed.

Our fight against corruption has been tough and ruthless, and we are not going to relent. We have taken both the strong and the mighty. We do not look anybody in the face. For instance, we had picked up the number three man in the country, the Senate President, to deal with him, because we know that he is corrupt. Unfortunately, he rigled out and bolted away through the technicalities of law.

We then went to another corrupt fellow, the Chief Justice of Nigeria. This time around, we said we would not take chances. Immediately we caught him, we got him out of the system.

Now, they are making noise, that we did not follow due process. Which due process, when we caught a thief red-handed? Nonsense. We are not going to listen to them.

Since they have been making noise that we were shielding corrupt politicians, we have now decided to charge the former Secretary to the Government of the Federation (SGF), Babchir Lawal, who they mischievously accused of cutting corners while cutting grass in IDP camps, to the EFCC, at least for him to clear his name of the allegation.

But they are now complaining that the man allegedly committed the crime about two years ago, wondering why we waited till now to take him to court?

We are not going to listen to them. There is nothing you do in this country that they will not find fault. If you act promptly, they say you have not followed the process of law. If you take time to investigate, like in the case of the former SGF, they say it is over-delayed. Wailers.

What else do we do that we have not done? While is the Transparency International bringing out this awkward report at this point in time, very close to our elections? Is it to discredit us, to make us look as if we have not been serious fighting corruption, to make some people begin to believe that there is no difference between us and the corrupt PDP?

See what that report has done to us. Nobel Laurette, Professor Wole Sonyika, who all along had been rooting for us, now says he would neither vote for us, nor the PDP. This is not good, Transparency International!