Abuja (Sundiata Post)- Human rights lawyer, Mr. Femi Falana (SAN), and civil society organisations have explained the poor rating of Nigeria’s anti-graft war by the Transparency International.
The Centre for Anti-Corruption and Open Leadership and the Committee for the Defence of Human Rights said Nigeria’s rating by the Transparency International dropped because the Federal Government had not done enough to tackle corruption among its officials in the executive.
Transparency International had ranked Nigeria 148 out of the 180 countries it assessed in 2017 on the annual corruption perception index.
The CACOL Director, Debo Adeniran, told Punch that the Federal Government should tackle corruption among its officials.
Adeniran said, “There is room for improvement and the improvement we have suggested to the Federal Government is that there are elements within the executive and the legislature that should be removed and subjected to trial.”
Also the CDHR President, Malachy Ugwummadu, said, “It is a wake-up call on the Federal Government. This is a government which came to power on the crest of its anti-corruption crusade. The perception by the TI could be debated but we should not dissipate energy on apportioning blames.
Also, in Falana’s chat with the Punch, he said President Muhammadu Buhari was aware that his administration’s anti-corruption war was being lost.
Speaking on the Transparency International’s rating that corruption worsened in Nigeria between 2016 and 2017, Falana noted that the nation would not have had it better.
He said two major anti-corruption agencies of the Federal Government, the Independent Corrupt Practices and other related offences Commission and the Code of Conduct Bureau, had been successfully “castrated” by the Senate’s refusal to confirm the nominees to the agencies’ boards.
Falana said, “The President (Muhammadu Buhari) is aware that the anti-corruption war is being lost. Hence, like a fatigued war commander, he reassured the nation in Adamawa some days ago that he was still prosecuting the war.
But the facts on the ground do not support the President’s claim. (Punch)