The Nigerian media is agog with a so called low ranking of Nigeria on Transparency International’s corruption perception index. According to the bunkum report, Nigeria ranks this year 146 out of 180 countries. Funnily, the report, rather than raise questions about Nigeria’s war against corruption only exposed Transparency International’s partiality and diabolical agenda against Nigeria as powered by the anger and sentiment of one man, the know-it-all self-appointed Nigeria’s perfection meter, former President Obasanjo.
It requires only a cursory review of the report to see the filthy hands of Obasanjo writing his fantasies for Transparency International to adopt as report to be fed doofuses just to malign the Buhari administration. To prove this mischief, let me quote a section of the report as scripted by Civil Society Legislative Advocacy Centre (CISLAC), Transparency International Chapter in Nigeria:
“While the index does not show real incidences of corruption, it is a reliable indication of the perception of the Nigerian public and the international community about the state of corruption in the country. The index is 100% impartial, objective and globally well respected.”
CISLAC went further:
“The negative result from this year provokes tough questions. Despite the proclaimed war on corruption, why is Nigeria perceived by Nigerians and the international community still as very corrupt? The Government of Nigeria claims winning the war on corruption, but is this statement backed by evidence?” Unquote.
Topmost on the list of my concerns against the bunkum report is its poverty of details. CISLAC confessed THE INDEX DOES NOT SHOW REAL INCIDENCES OF CORRUPTION. This is saying the so called report was only a compendium of Transparency International’s assumptions and fantasies which it intends to foist as scientific facts with a single motive of denying President Buhari the benefit of public trust in the ongoing war against corruption.
CISLAC claimed “the index is 100% impartial, objective and globally well respected.” So damn what if it believe so! Are we suppose to tag along and like dummies, subscribe to the beliefs of CISLAC/Transparency without any proof? Highlighting the virtues of Transparency International by CISLAC only exposed motive of the mischief-laden report. As my people would say: “Idan ba rami me ya kawo maganar rami”. Why the desperation to prove TI’s credibility in the middle of the report.
Let me hypothesize about the poverty of details in CISLAC/TI’s report. Items 1 & 2 on its mission statement has it that Transparency International will (1) Condemn bribery and corruption vigorously wherever it has been reliably identified. (2) Its position would always be based on sound, objective and professional analysis and high standards of research.
Is it logical then that perhaps, Transparency International is shy to open the details of Nigeria’s corruption Perceptions Index given that a member of its Advisory Council who is dubiously being promoted locally as the Chairman of its Advisory Council, Chief Olusegun Obasanjo, is at the center of an unprecedented monumental fraud of $16bn, a scandal already a subject of probe by the National Assembly and which could be said to be the major anti-corruption event in Nigeria in the year under review? Transparency International’s silence on the details of its sponsored perception is quite logical. There’s no way it could debate Nigeria’s progress in the fight against corruption without touching the brazen theft $16bn by the Obasanjo administration doing which would concurrently prove Buhari’s progress in the war against corruption while exposing the smelly underbelly of Obasanjo — the “Chairman of its Advisory Council” or at least a member of the Council.
Left with no basis to discuss TI’s latest tantrums, let’s review its credibility viz-a-viz its always skewed assessment of Nigeria and its chummy relationship with Obasanjo. To say Transparency International is a mouthpiece of former President Obasanjo is to say the say the obvious. Attached to this report is numerous press releases by Transparency International which when carefully reviewed are a reliable proof that TI and Obasanjo are one and the same hence, TI is an interested party in the war of moral supremacy between Obasanjo and Buhari therefore, unqualified to asses Buhari or his policy given Obasanjo’s disdain and consuming ambition to pull Buhari down.
To further prove TI’s partisanship and insincerity one only need to ask why TI seem eternally blind to various atrocities committed by Obasanjo like the aforementioned $16bn scandal where it’s always quick to come out in defence or support of Obasanjo? Is Transparency International saying Obasanjo is clean? Should we ask what’s TI’s position on Obasanjo’s presidential library or why it chose to celebrate Obasanjo’s release from Abacha’s dungeon while remaining shamelessly silent about late Gen. Yar’adua’s fate? TI must be operating with less than a fish’s Intelligence if it’s under the assumption that Nigerians cannot see these discrepancies and judge them for what they are.
Forget the name “Transparency International”, there’s nothing transparent about TI. It’s just your everyday contraption created by sophisticated crooks to serve as a weapon to fight their battles. In any case, TI has its moral battles to fight and is in no position to reliably determine who is fighting corruption rightly or not. In January 2015 it was reported that the moral crusader Transparency International sees itself for accepted $3 million from the German engineering multinational Siemens, which in 2008 paid one of the largest corporate corruption fines in history – $1.6 billion – for bribing government officials in numerous countries. In 2014, Siemens made the donation to Transparency International after pleading guilty in 2008 to bribery charges relating to widespread corrupt practices in Greece, Norway, Iraq, Vietnam, Italy, Israel, Argentina, Venezuela, China and Russia. Since then, have you heard Transparency International talking about SIEMENS?
Shine your eyes! TI is only a weapon in the hands of Obasanjo which he is using to fight his enemies and, with the determination of this administration to take no prisoners in its war against corruption, more of silly reports like this are in the offing. If anything, the TI report is nothing but Obasanjo’s desperation to distract Nigerians from the multi-billion dollars allegation of corruption placed on his doorsteps just so he cling to a false identify of piety on which his entire survival is rested. Transparency International my foot!
