The Peoples Democratic Party says the latest
report by Transparency International (TI) has vindicated its position that
corruption has worsened under the President Muhammadu Buhari-led
administration.
The chairman of the party, Uche Secondus, said
this at the meeting of the party’s National Executive Committee on Thursday.
Premium Times had earlier reported that the
perception of corruption in Nigeria worsened between 2016 and 2017, according
to a new report by Transparency International.
Nigeria ranked 148 out of 180 countries
assessed in 2017 on the perception of corruption, the annual Corruption
Perception Index (CPI) by Transparency International (TI), states.
The PDP said by this new TI report, “the
African Union (AU) must have now realised its error in naming President Buhari
as the African Union (AU) anti-corruption champion and should immediately
withdraw the conferment.”
The AU earlier this year named President Buhari
as the Africa Anti-Corruption Champion and tasked him with leading the fight
against the malaise across the continent.
The PDP spokesperson, Kola Ologbondiyan, also
in a statement on Thursday, said the TI report exposed “those parading daily as
champions of anti-corruption were rather superintending over the worst kind of
official sleaze and hypocrisy in the history of our nation.”
The opposition party accused the APC federal
government of deceiving Nigerians “with a ‘holier than thou posturing’ and
painting others black when it is swimming in forms of corruption that is
eminently festered by official concealment by the Presidency.
“When the PDP first alerted that the APC and
its incompetent federal government were swimming in an ocean of concealed
corruption, many did not know to what extent.”
“It is shocking that under our ‘saints’,
Nigeria has moved significantly from the 136th it ranked in 2016 to 146th in
2017, with President Buhari presiding on our nation.”
“This is a government that has been providing
cover for its corrupt officials while operating heavily on propaganda,
persecution of opposition members with fabricated charges and toiling to sway
the people with false performance indices.”
“This is a government that offered protection
to former APC governors who were accused of stealing money meant for the
development of their states to fund the 2015 APC presidential campaign, and
even rewarded them with ministerial appointments.”
The party challenged the APC and the presidency
to speak out on the TI report.
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