By Ishaya Ibrahim, News Editor
The Federal Government on Tuesday threw a challenge to Nigerians who doubt the potency of President Muhammadu Buhari’s fight against corruption: “Anyone who disagrees that the anti-corruption fight is alive and well is free to dare us.”
The government which also said President Buhari will not resign over alleged cases of corruption in the Niger Delta Development Commission (NDDC), Nigeria Social Insurance Trust Fund (NSITF) and the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC), dismissed the growing calls for Buhari’s resignation over the many cases of graft under his watch as infantile.
The Minister of Information and Culture, Alhaji Lai Mohammed made the government’s position known at a briefing in Abuja.
Blaming the opposition Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) who he accused of celebrating alleged cases of corruption in some Ministries, Departments and Agencies (MDAs), Mohammed said those thinking the anti-corruption war was dying were engaging in wishful thinking.
While assuring that the anti-graft war was not waning, the minister said the government will not spare anyone implicated in corrupt practices.
“You are all aware, Nigerians have recently been inundated with allegations of monumental corruption in a number of government agencies, including the NDDC, NSITF and the anti-corruption agency, EFCC.
“Many, especially naysayers, have misinterpreted these developments as a sign that the administration’s fight against corruption is waning.
“In fact, the main opposition PDP has latched on to the developments to call for the resignation of Mr. President, a call that is nothing but infantile!
“Let me state here and now that the fight against corruption, a cardinal programme of this Administration, is alive and well.
“President Muhammadu Buhari, the African Union’s Anti-Corruption Champion, who also has an impeccable reputation globally, remains the driver of the fight and no one, not the least the PDP under whose
watch Nigeria was looted dry, can taint his image or reverse the gains of the fight,” Mohammed said.
