FG to critics: Dare us if you think the fight against corruption is dead

Lai Mohammed, minister of information, says the fight of President Muhammadu Buhari against corruption is still alive and well.

Addressing a press conference in Abuja on Tuesday, Mohammed said the probes of the Niger Delta Development Commission (NDDC) and Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC) show that the federal government is taking the fight against corruption seriously.

While panels of the national assembly have probed the NDDC for alleged mismanagement of funds, Ibrahim Magu, a former acting chairman of the EFCC is facing a presidential panel over allegations that his mismanaged recovered assets.

Last week, Uche Secondus, national chairman of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP), described the anti-graft war as a ruse.

But at the press conference, the minister said those who do not believe in the anti-corruption fight are “free to dare us.”

“As you are all aware, Nigerians have recently been inundated with allegations of monumental corruption in a number of government agencies, including the NDDC, NSITF and the anti-corruption agency, EFCC,” he said.

“Many, especially naysayers, have misinterpreted these developments as a sign that the Administration’s fight against
corruption is waning. In fact, the main opposition PDP has latched on to the developments to call for the resignation of Mr. President, a call that is nothing but infantile!

“Let me state here and now that the fight against corruption, a cardinal programme of this administration, is alive and well.
President Muhammadu Buhari, the African Union’s Anti-Corruption Champion, who also has an impeccable reputation globally, remains the driver of the fight and no one, not the least the PDP under whose watch Nigeria was looted dry, can taint his image or reverse the gains
of the fight. Anyone who disagrees that the anti-corruption fight is alive and well is free to dare us.

“What the revelations of the past few weeks, especially the investigation of the nation’s anti-corruption Czar, have shown is that
this Administration is not ready to sweep any allegation of corruption under the carpet; that there is no sacred cow in this fight, and that
– unlike the PDP – we will not cover up for anyone, including the members of our party and government, who face corruption allegations.

“Our fight against corruption is blind to party affiliation, position in government and any other consideration. If the nation’s
anti-corruption Czar can be investigated, then the fight against corruption cannot be deemed to be fake, neither can it be said to be waning.”

The minister added that the federal government is putting in place enduring institutional reforms that “will deter acts of corruption.”