The Buhari Media Support Group (BMSG) has assured Nigerians that the government of President Muhammadu Buhari has not lost the steam in its battle to stem corruption in the country and has, indeed, intensified efforts in fighting the menace to stand still.
The group said this in reaction to a report just published by the National Bureau of Statistics (NBS) on statistics and spread of corruption within the public and the private sectors of the country.
NBS in its 2017 Survey on Corruption had estimated the value bribery within the public sector in a year as totaling N400 billion (about to $4.6 billion).
However, the pro-Buhari group said the present government has, all along, regarded corruption as an anathema and Nigeria’s number one enemy, a reason President Buhari on assumption of office made the fight against the menace a major policy thrust of his administration.
The statement signed by group’s Chairman and Secretary, Austin Braimah and Cassidy Madueke respectively, stressed that the present government has since 2015 demonstrated the will power to fight corruption while it has attained good results in the process.
The Buhari’s government, BMSG recalled, had made huge recoveries of funds allegedly stolen by past government officials, part of which it said had been used to fund National Budgets.
It said the anti-corruption agencies have demonstrated resolve in combating corruption while latching onto the whistle blowing initiative of the government to make huge discoveries of looted funds hidden in secret places and seizure of ill-gotten properties by suspected looters.
The group noted that Nigeria’s name no longer pops-up prominently in the corruption perception index by the Transparency International (TI), an indication that the measures adopted by the government in fighting corruption in the country, and which are being acknowledged globally are yielding great results.
“If NBC’s statistics shows that corruption still exists within the government establishments, the perceived lack of will by the past government to confront the problem head long is principally responsible for this. This development had in the first instance, fired the resolve by the All Progressives Congress (APC) government to confront the problem” it said.
The BMSG, however, urged agencies indicted in the NBS Report on Corruption to wake up to its responsibility in line with the agenda of this administration by sensitizing their employees against acts of corruption and ancillary negligence.
