By Henry Uche
As reactions trails the latest report from Transparency International (TI) which ranks Nigeria 149/180 countries globally and second most corrupt countries in Africa after Guinea Bissau, the Institute Of Directors (IOD) has charged the federal government of Nigeria to quit the act of defense mechanism regarding the report and do the right things.
In an interview with the CEO/DG of the Institute, Dele Alimi, noted that it is totally futile if the powers that be continues in play down on the issues raised by TI by debunking the report instead of seeking for solutions to the myriads of unfortunate incidents that have kept the country in economic retardation.
According to him, the shakers and movers of the country should start doing certain things as well stop doing some other things which have kept the country in a pitable state as they ought to do and ought not to do. He said, “Personally I do not think we should be on the defense as far as this TI report is concerned. There are two scenarios here. The Nigerian government believes it is doing and/or has done so much to curb corruption in the country.
“However, the review by TI is completely contrary to what the Government believes it has achieved. Therefore there is a need to do a critical analysis of the TI report and examine areas of divergence or disagreement in order to properly understand the basis of their declaration. This way, government could learn some lessons on gaps that have been identified by TI and then strategise on how such gaps can be filled to improve Nigeria’s fight against corruption.
“Because sometimes you think you are doing so well, but when your performance is benchmarked against best practice or against performance from other climes, your rating could drop and your performance may not be as good as you thought it was,
He added that the report was not just on Nigeria, but a global one that also consider what is being done in other climes. He noted that when a country fights corruption but in a very slow pace than other countries, such country will definitely slide down in the rankings.
“So my thoughts are that we should be concerned about what we are not doing right. Where or how are we dropping the balls and then we should do something about it,” he asseverated.
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