He attributed the success to the clinical surgical incision made by President Jonathan at the centers of corruption in the country.
“The significant improvement Nigeria has made in the 2014 Corruption Perception Index released by Transparency International is as a result of the clinical surgical incision made by President Jonathan at the centers of corruption in Nigeria.
You may recall that the Fertilizer Procurement and Distribution regime of the Agricultural sector used to be a cesspool of corruption. Billions of dollars were lost as middlemen inflated costs yet supplied subpar products to our farmers. But under the guidance of President Jonathan, 14 million farmers were registered by the Ministry of Agriculture and were connected directly to the product through the e-wallet system which allowed the ministry send texts to farmers to go and pick up their fertilizer and seeds direct from the depot. Nigeria has saved close to $2 Billion that would have gone into the pockets of corrupt officials and middlemen by this system.
Also, I am sure Transparency International took into account the fact that this administration took the unprecedented step of auditing the workforce of the Federal Civil Service and in the process weeded out fifty thousand ghost workers saving Nigeria almost 350 billion Naira per annum. Due to the President’s determination to punish this economic sabotage, those responsible have been forwarded to the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission, EFCC, for prosecution to the highest extent of the law.
It is also common knowledge that this administration has all but eliminated electoral fraud. Nigerians as well as Transparency International can attest to the fact that all elections held under the watch of Dr. Goodluck Jonathan, whether the 2011 General Elections, or the elections in Edo, Anambra, Ondo, Ekiti, Osun and Niger, have been free and fair and seen to be so by the International Community.
These and other policies are the criteria that TI has used to bump Nigeria up in her ratings.
He took a swipe at the opposition for doling out cash to their delegates in preparation to the party’s primaries
“If it were up to the opposition, which is preparing for its primaries by doling out cash to their delegates and calling it welfare, Nigeria would have sunk further down in the CPI instead of our current improvement,” he said.
He added that the president will continue the fight against corruption.
Transparency International’s Corruption Perceptions Index 2014 ranks countries based on a 100-point “corruption perception” scale, where zero equals a “highly corrupt” perception and 100 means the country is perceived to be very clean.
Nigeria ranked 136th, along with Russia, Lebanon, and Kyrgyzstan. In the report, North Korea and Somalia rank equal-worst of 174 countries with a score of just eight. Denmark and New Zealand ranked least corrupt, with scores of 92 and 91, respectively.
