PDP, SERAP mock Buhari over Transparency International’s report on worsening corruption

The PDP, in a statement on Thursday by its spokesman, Kola Ologbondiyan, said the rating validated its position that corruption had worsened under Buhari.

The PDP described as a national embarrassment that under an administration by the same leader who wore the medal as “African Union Anti-Corruption Champion” and whose government boasted of zero tolerance for corruption, Nigeria ranked the second most corrupt country in West Africa.

He said the PDP had since been challenging the Buhari Presidency and the APC to come clean, account for the over N14tn allegedly stolen by the APC leaders from government coffers in the last four years.

Also, SERAP said Nigeria’s downward slip on the TI’s corruption perception Index should not come as a surprise to anyone.


SERAP’s Deputy Director, Kolawole Oludare, said the 2019 TI Corruption Perceptions Index, which showed that Nigeria’s corruption rating had worsened from 2018, confirmed the belief that Buhari’s anti-graft war was backsliding.

The group advised the Federal Government to accept the report and implement the recommendations rather than dismiss it.

Oludare said, “Nigeria’s score on Transparency International’s Corruption Perception Index 2019 is hardly surprising but suggests that the fight against corruption in the country has not improved, and in fact remains at the level of the 2015 ranking in which Nigeria also scored 26.

“With an average of 32, sub-Saharan Africa’s performance paints a bleak picture of inaction against corruption.

“The authorities should not simply dismiss the ranking. Going forward, Nigerian authorities must embrace the recommendations by TI and set some benchmarks for anti-corruption improvements in the coming years.”