The Director-General of the Progressives Governors’ Forum, Dr Salihu Lukman has said the 2021 Transparency International Corruption Perception Report about Nigeria was contrived as part of the 2023 political campaign.
He said the report which painted a disturbing picture of the state of the anti-corruption war should be a thing of concern to all well-meaning Nigerians.
Lukman said this in a statement titled, “Politicising Anti-Corruption Campaign in Nigeria,” made available to newsmen in Abuja on Tuesday.
He said, “If one is to interpret the Nigeria CPI 2020 report, the conclusion is that the current government of 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’, 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.