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TI Report: Knocks for
Obasanjo
�Akinyemi, Okorie lament
Nigeria�s rating in global corruption
By Oguwike
Nwachuku,
Sunny Igboanugo,
Habib Aruna and
Victor Ebimomi
(Lagos)
Nigeria�s poor showing on the
scale of world corruption watchdog Transparency International (TI) seems
to have hit its citizens at the centre of their bruised hearts to inflict
more pain.
And the Wednesday�s report,
that yet again rated Africa�s most populous country as one of the most
corrupt in the world, has given opposition parties and opinion leaders the
leverage to pick holes in the flaunted record of the government�s fight
against corruption.
The world body, on which
President Olusegun Obasanjo and some officials of his government sit
prominently as members, returned another damning verdict on the nation�s
performance at eradicating the peculiar mess, despite the huge resources
the government has deployed in the last five years to eradicate
it.
Nigeria only managed to inch
one step up the ladder from a second position the previous year to a third
in this year�s assessment, even with Obasanjo�s declaration that
eradicating the problem is a key government programme.
Leading the criticism are the
Conference of Nigeria Political Parties (CNPP) and the Labour community,
both of which said the report portrays the true picture of the country,
and that it is an indictment on the government and its lack of
determination to fight endemic corruption in official circles.
�Transparency International�s
report on Nigeria puts a big lie to Obasanjo�s much vaunted
anti-corruption campaign�, said CNPP Secretary General Maxi Okwu, who
spoke on telephone from Abuja. �Where is Oby Ezekwesili and the savings
from due process? If less discerning members of the public were taken in
by the deceit, we were not�.
Speaking in the same vein,
Congress of Free Trade Unions of Nigeria (CFTU) General Secretary Didi
Adodo noted that the report could not have been more accurate, as the
major actors in the corruption drama are top government
officials.
�The report is very, very
correct. The highest corruption rate is in Aso Rock. In fact, the
government is corruption personified�, Adodo stressed, and called on the
Presidency to stop deceiving Nigerians.
Trade Union Congress of
Nigeria (TUC) Secretary General John Kolawole, on his part, wondered why
the government is contesting the report when it is glaring that the
country is not making any progress in its crusade against corruption.
Nigeria Labour Congress (NLC)
Assistant Secretary Denja Yaqub berated the government for contesting the
report, saying Nigeria should have even topped the list of corrupt
nations. �The word corruption is synonymous with Nigeria. Any Nigerian who
lives in Nigeria will not doubt the report�, he said, stressing that a
country that can give awards to someone indicted of corruption cannot
absolve itself of corruption.
Former External Affairs
Minister Bolaji Akinyemi declined to speak on the issue, but seemed to
have said in a few words what he would in a whole book, with his likening
of the situation to the legal expression of res ipsa
loquito (the
facts speak for themselves).
He declined elaboration on
grounds that his open letter last week to the President about the
situation in the country should suffice for now. �I have just written
something and I think I should keep my gunpowder dry for now. But, indeed,
do I need to make any comment? I don�t need to make any comment. The story
tells its own story. That is what the lawyers say�, Akinyemi
stated.
But National Chairman of All
Progressives Grand Alliance (APGA) Chekwas Okorie was more forthcoming,
insisting that the verdict confirms the party�s position all along. �It
has confirmed what we in the opposition have been saying all these years
that this government will go down as the most corrupt government in
Nigerian history. This show of shame has made no Nigerian proud. The early
this government gets out the better for the country. We need fresh air in
this country�.
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