FG Not Distracted By ‘Baseless’ Rating Of TI —Lai Mohammed

The Minister of Information and Culture, Alhaji Lai Mohammed has stated that the Federal Government of Nigeria will not be distracted by the “baseless” rating of the Transparency International, which ranked Nigeria low in its latest international Corruption Perception index.

Lai who revealed this on Tuesday in London when he featured on respective interview sessions with some international media organisations, however said that the TI rating is incorrect.

He also stated further that the Nigerian government is unhappy about the development.
The minister who featured on interview sessions with some international media organisations including; Reuters News Agency, BBC, Financial Times and The Guardian since he arrived in London on Monday said that Nigeria is winning the war against corruption.

He said; “In any event, we are not fighting corruption because we want to impress any organisation.

“We are fighting corruption because we believed that without fighting the menace, the much-sought development will not happen and we have results to show for fighting corruption.
“We have put in place policies and legislations that have tamed the monster called corruption.

“For instance, apart from the TSA, which has saved us billions of Naira, we put in place transparency portal which enables every Nigerians to see how much is being spent by the government every day.

“Under the transparency portal regulation, any expenditure above N5 billion must be reported and that gives every Nigerian the opportunity to know exactly what is going on.

“We will continue to fight corruption and we know that we are winning the war,” Lai added.