{"id":9263,"date":"2018-05-26T10:26:40","date_gmt":"2018-05-26T10:26:40","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/everyday.ng\/?p=9263"},"modified":"2018-05-26T10:26:40","modified_gmt":"2018-05-26T10:26:40","slug":"fg-tackles-transparency-group-we-need-support-not-condemnation","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/everyday.ng\/?p=9263","title":{"rendered":"FG tackles transparency group: We need support not condemnation"},"content":{"rendered":"<div dir=\"ltr\">The Minister of Information and Culture, Alhaji Lai Mohammed, has urged the global anti corruption body Transparency International (TI) to support, rather than condemn, the Buhari Administration&#8217;s fight against corruption.<\/div>\n<div dir=\"ltr\"><\/div>\n<div dir=\"ltr\">&#8221;Nigeria has never had a more transparent, more accountable government than the Buhari Administration,&#8221; the Minister said when he received a TI delegation, led by the Chair of the body&#8217;s International Board, Delia Ferreira Rubio, in Abuja on Friday.<\/div>\n<div dir=\"ltr\"><\/div>\n<div dir=\"ltr\">&#8221;As a policy, this government is the most committed to fighting corruption. We need your support in the area of advocacy and capacity building,&#8221; he said.<\/div>\n<div dir=\"ltr\"><\/div>\n<div dir=\"ltr\">Alhaji Mohammed said TI and the local civil society organizations affiliated to it have not offered the necessary support to the Administration, adding: &#8221;They look at the actions of an aberrant few to condemn the government.&#8221;<\/div>\n<div dir=\"ltr\"><\/div>\n<div dir=\"ltr\">He said when the government disclosed that just 55 people stole 1.34 trillion naira between 2006 and 2013, and when it published the list of looters, in response to a challenge from the opposition, a section of the civil society was busy parroting the cliche that the allegations were one-sided, instead of supporting the government&#8217;s action.<\/div>\n<div dir=\"ltr\"><\/div>\n<div dir=\"ltr\">The Minister also tasked TI and its affiliates to show more understanding for the sociological complexities of fighting corruption in Nigeria, especially because it operates a federal system of government under which the federal government has no control over the actions of the federating states.<\/div>\n<div dir=\"ltr\"><\/div>\n<div dir=\"ltr\">He said the Administration is not just fighting corruption with laws and prosecution, but also with education and inclusiveness in government, citing the government&#8217;s &#8216;Change Begins With Me&#8217; programme as an example of efforts being made to achieve attitudinal change among the citizenry.<\/div>\n<div dir=\"ltr\"><\/div>\n<div dir=\"ltr\">Alhaji Mohammed said Nigeria is succeeding in its anti-corruption fight because the fight is being led by a President whose integrity is beyond reproach noting: &#8221;Even his worst critics won&#8217;t say he indulges in or encourages corruption.&#8221;<\/div>\n<div dir=\"ltr\"><\/div>\n<div dir=\"ltr\">He said corrupt persons are using looted funds to mount a virulous campaign against the administration, especially in the social media, because they know that the re-election of the President will spell doom for them.<\/div>\n<div dir=\"ltr\"><\/div>\n<div dir=\"ltr\">For her part, the TI global chair said she decided to visit Nigeria, her first-ever visit to Africa, because the country can set the tone for the continent in the fight against corruption.<\/div>\n<div dir=\"ltr\"><\/div>\n<div dir=\"ltr\">Ms Ferreira Rubio said TI&#8217;s mandate is to offer support through civil society organizations and the private sector to foster the fight against corruption.<\/div>\n<div dir=\"ltr\"><\/div>\n<div dir=\"ltr\">She said while the government is doing a lot to fight corruption, it should ensure more transparency and more efficiency in service delivery.<\/div>\n<div dir=\"ltr\"><\/div>\n<div dir=\"ltr\">&#8221;We are not an opposition anywhere in the world. We are just an NGO working in over 100 countries of the world. We are not enemies. We are here to help,&#8221; she said.<\/div>\n<div dir=\"ltr\"><\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>The Minister of Information and Culture, Alhaji Lai Mohammed, has urged the global anti corruption body Transparency International (TI) to support, rather than condemn, the Buhari Administration&#8217;s fight against corruption. &#8221;Nigeria has never had a more transparent, more accountable government than the Buhari Administration,&#8221; the Minister said when he received a TI delegation, led by [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":7,"featured_media":9264,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[7],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-9263","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/everyday.ng\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/9263","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/everyday.ng\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/everyday.ng\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/everyday.ng\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/7"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/everyday.ng\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=9263"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/everyday.ng\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/9263\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/everyday.ng\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=9263"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/everyday.ng\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=9263"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/everyday.ng\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=9263"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}