The Director-General of the Progressives Governors’ Forum, PGF, Dr Salihu Lukman has said the 2020 Transparency International,TI, Corruption Perception Index, CPI, report about Nigeria was part of the 2023 political campaign.
Lukman averred that the report, which painted a disturbing picture of the state of the anti-corruption war in Nigeria should be a thing of concern to all well-meaning Nigerians.
In a statement titled, “Politicising Anti-Corruption Campaign in Nigeria,” which he personally signed and made available to newsmen in Abuja, Lukman said, “If one is to interpret the Nigeria CPI 2020 report, the conclusion is that the current government of the All Progressives ves Congress, APC, under the leadership of President Muhammadu Buhari, has lost the fight against corruption.
“For us to be able to fight against corruption, based on the ‘perception by Nigerian businesses and country experts’, according to the report, there has to be a change of government. This is the underlying narrative in the CPI report.
“It is basically more of a political campaign for 2023. Nigerians, including local leaders of civil society groups and their international partners, are free to make their political choices and decisions.
“But they should be transparent about it. It mustn’t be a case of shadowboxing Nigerian citizens and forcing them to kowtow to political choices fraudulently contrived because Nigerian citizens are committed to the fight against corruption.”
