A spokesperson in Nigeria’s Presidency, Garba Shehu has said the latest report by Transparency International, TI, is not an indictment on the President Muhammadu Buhari administration but rather on Nigerians.

Nigeria underperformed in the annual global corruption index, released on Thursday by Transparency International.

The Berlin-based organisation disclosed in its 2020 Corruption Perceptions Index (CPI) report that Nigeria’s ratings plunged to 149 on a categorised scale for “highly corrupt” countries, three places down from its 146th position in 2019. 

Nigeria had previously dropped from its 144th position on the CPI in 2018 to 146 in 2019. 

Mr. Shehu who featured on a Channels TV programme on Monday argued that the report by TI, scoring Nigeria low in its anti-graft war is not a yardstick to judge the Buhari administration.

He alleged that the report focused more on political culture which had a lot to do with Nigerians and not Mr. Buhari.

“I’ll tell you that this one by TI is not a judgment on Buhari or his administration or its war against corruption,” Mr. Shehu said. “ …this one is a judgement on Nigerians because if you look at the indices they used at arriving at these conclusions, they used eight indices, six of which showed Nigeria as being more or less Nigeria in the same position.”

“The two that they dwelled on, that caused this backslide, are essentially Nigerian problems. They’re talking about the political culture of this country, vote-buying, thuggery. Is it Buhari that is a thug? We’re not doing thuggery,” Mr. Shehu queried.

The spokesman also touched on the report’s judiciary indices. Despite admitting that there were issues in the sector, Mr. Shehu argued that the perception of TI as regards the country’s judiciary system is wrong.

Information minister Lai Mohamed had earlier argued that the report is not a true reflection of President Buhari’s anti-corruption war.

The worsening public sector corruption ratings represent a consecutive decline in Nigeria’s CPI performance under Mr. Buhari, who had mouthed anti-corruption as a major policy plank since he assumed office in 2015.