By Ishaya Ibrahim
The Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) on Thursday said the 2019 corruption index report on Nigeria by Transparency International (TI) has further
validated its position that corruption has worsened under President
Muhammadu Buhari and the All Progressives Congress (APC).
Calling the report damning, the opposition party said it was a national embarrassment that “under an administration by the same leader who wears the medal as “African Union (AU) Anti-Corruption Champion”, and whose government boasts of zero-tolerance for corruption” Nigeria now ranks as fourth most corrupt country in West African and one of the leading most corrupt countries of the world.
The PDP’s position was contained in a statement by its national publicity secretary, Kola Ologbondiyan, obtained by TheNiche.
The statement said, “The TI report, which shows our country dropping to a malodorous 26, from the already disapproving 27 points it maintained since 2017, had further exposed the the Buhari administration and the APC as merely posturing as saints and hounding innocent Nigerians with fake anti-corruption war, while engaged in unprecedented looting of our national resources.
“It indeed speaks volume that the Buhari administration and the APC that
came into power in 2015 on an anti-corruption mantra, has ended up
becoming the most corrupt in the history of our dear nation.
“Moreover, the fact that the APC and its government, with their numerous
megaphones, have remained silent over the report is also very revealing.
By this TI report, Nigerians are no longer in doubt as to why our nation
has been plagued with worsening economic hardship, poverty and hunger,
dilapidated infrastructure and devastating retrogression in critical
sectors such as health, power, education, transport, agriculture among
others in the last four years while APC leaders, their families and
cronies, gloat in affluence to the chagrin of Nigerians.
“Nigerians can recall that our party has since been challenging Buhari
Presidency and the APC to come clean, account for the over N14 trillion
allegedly stolen by APC leaders from government coffers in the last four
years.
“This includes the stolen N9 trillion detailed in the NNPC leaked memo;
the N1.1 trillion worth of crude allegedly stolen by certain APC leaders
using 18 unregistered vessels; the over N1.4 trillion stolen from shady
oil subsidy deals as well as monies stolen from sensitive government
agencies including the Federal Inland Revenue Service (FIRS), National
Health Insurance Scheme (NHIS), National Emergency Management Agency
(NEMA) among others.
“It is now clear that the Buhari administration and the APC have not only
failed in their boasts to tackle corruption and insecurity but have
ended up economically despoiling our nation and worsening our security
challenges.
“The fact remains that the Buhari Presidency and the APC cannot
controvert these damning facts. The only thing left for them is to
apologize to Nigerians and get ready for their place in the dustbin of
history as the worst government and political party ever in the history
of our nation.”
