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Obasanjo in Sweden, Dismisses TI Report
'...we don't condone corruption' From Oma Djebah in Sweden, 11.20.2004
President Olusegun Obasanjo at the weekend in Sweden faulted the damaging verdict of Transparency International (TI) on Nigeria as one of the most corrupt nations in the world, stressing that the organisation's judgment is not a reflection of the true situation in the country. Obasanjo declared that since Nigeria became a democratic country five years ago after prolonged years of military authoritarianism, she has embarked on many far-reaching political and economic reforms. He added that "Transparency Interna-tional perception judgment is not a correct reflection of what is happening in Nigeria and that is not right." The President also emphasised that with a population of 150 million people and peace keeping operations in Africa, coupled with a number of other factors which he would not mention, Nigeria is a country that cannot and should not be ignored in the UN reforms. He however stressed that "it will not be in our tradition to beat our chest and say so, let others say it." He also called on African countries to put their house in order, stressing that “we must all work together and put heads together." The UN Secretary-General, Kofi Annan had announced planned reforms in the UN system which would make it possible for Africa to occupy a seat at the world body's Security Council as a permanent representative. Obasanjo's declaration in Sweden was his first official reaction since TI published its report this year . The president is on a two-day official visit to that country. He spoke during a question and answer session he and the Prime Minister of Sweden, Mr Gran Persson, had with the media at the signing of bilateral agreements on Trade and business between both countries. Obasanjo had earlier faulted the TI’s rating of the country during a morning session he had with select International media organizations, like Swedish Broadcasting Corporation, Swedish Television, THISDAY and International Herald Tribune. He said while elaborating on his position: "Transparen-cy International was one of the organizations I helped bring about. I do know that yes, we had 15 years of military rule before this current democracy. The most recent of which I was a victim, jailed on trumped up charges, for allegedly planning a coup, was worse than the colonial masters. It was worse than the colonial period, in terms of oppression and corruption. But since Nigeria became a democratic country, we have been expanding democracy and political and economic reforms. We have taken a lot of reforms. "One step in that regard is that we are fighting corruption in Nigeria. We are deepening democracy seriously. We have embarked on NEPAD which is a package of reforms which is the continental development strategy in Line with the MDG, the Millennium Development Goal. That is at the continental level. Nigeria is one of the countries in Africa that subscribes to the APRM, Peer Review Mechanism, the implication is that we allowed ourselves to be peer reviewed. "Not every African country subscribes to that. We are reforming the telecommunication sector and that sector has become one of the fastest growing, especially in terms of mobile (telephone). In another two years, it will be a massive global phenomenon. In the area of Peace keeping operations, we had a summit in Abuja where we deliberated on the issues of conflicts we talked about. So we have embarked on positive reforms at the political and economic levels in the last five years. "Like I told you, there was a lot of miscarriage of justice during the most oppressive period in our country, of which I was a victim, I could have died in that period but that is not so today in Nigeria with our return to democracy. So the TI judgment is not a correct reflection of the situation. We are not condoning corruption at all. Because it breeds inefficiency and it is a strange bedfellow to development." It would be recalled that the Transparency International (TI) which published its yearly corruption index of countries, had placed Nigeria among the third most corrupt countries in the world. In preceding year, the global anti-corruption watchdog had equally maintained that Nigeria was the second most corrupt nation in the world, after Bangladesh. It is instructive to note that the international watch dog agency basically categorizes countries based on what it perceives to be the presence or absence of corruption in government and business, using certain indexes. This year, TI's report had focused on political corruption. One of the major criteria it used is political finance-related corruption, which it said is both a major and a common problem in Nigeria. The countries are grouped along the grades of low, medium and high political corruption. On Obasanjo's two day official entourage were Minister of Communications, Chief Cornelius Adebayo, Power and Steel minister, Senator Liyel Imoke, Governor of Nassarawa state, Alhaji Abdullahi Adamu, his Kebbi state counterpart, Alhaji Adamu Aliero, Minister of State for Foreign Affairs, Alhaji Abubakar Tanko, Nigerian Ambassador to Sweden, Ambassador F. Adebo-Kiencke, Information minister, Chief Chukwuemeka Chikelu and Senior Special Assistant to the President on Media, Mrs Remi Oyo. On hand to receive Obasanjo in Sweden were the King of Sweden, His Majesty the King, Carl Gustaf, Prime minister Gˆran Persson, minister Thomas Ostros, Ms Birgitta Holst alani, Ambassador of Sweden to Nigeria, amongst others.
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