Garba Shehu, media aide to President Buhari says statements from the opposition party could have influenced the corruption perception index by Transparency International (TI) which ranked Nigeria low.
TI ranked Nigeria 146 of 180 countries studied, two points lower than 148 the country was rated in 2018 in its 2019 corruption perception index published on Thursday.
According to TI, the decline was based on attack on the media and journalists exposing corruption, selective anti-graft war as well as ingrained corrupt practices in critical sectors.
Shehu while speaking during a Channels TV programme on Friday, said the report is based on secondary data and not factual.
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He said it is only a perception, and it is “different from the reality that you have on the ground”.
“In fairness to the TI that presented the report, they said themselves that it is not research-based,” Shehu said.
“So, it is not fact-based but based on secondary data; information collected here and there. In effect, anybody could put together this kind of report from press releases issued by opposition political parties.”
Shehu also state that the report is “harsh on the government,” noting that: “This administration has done enormously well. We have achieved quite a lot.
”It is hearsay, somebody said something and we are picking it from there.”
