The Federal Government has said that President Muhammadu Buhari will not deviate from his commitment to ensure the conduct of free, fair and credible general elections.
Minister of Information and Culture, Lai Mohammed, disclosed this to State House correspondents after the weekly Federal Executive Council (FEC) meeting presided over by President Buhari at the Presidential Villa, Abuja on Wednesday.
The minister was responding to a claim by Kaduna State governor, Nasir el-Rufai, that some unnamed persons or “elements” in the Presidential Villa were working against the electoral success of the candidate of the All Progressives Congress (APC), Asiwaju Bola Tinubu, in the coming presidential election.
He maintained that President Buhari, being the main occupant of the Aso Rock Villa, had stressed times without number that he wanted his administration to deliver a credible exercise.
The Minister said that if there were elements within the seat of power who are working against the victory of the ruling party, it has not been brought officially to his notice.
He said: “On a more serious note, one thing I can assure you is that no matter what, this administration is focused, determined to ensure free and fair elections.
“But I think with this administration, the most important person is Mr. President, and I think he has shown by words and by deeds that he is committed to free, fair and credible election. And fair, free, credible elections actually means not favouring anybody or disadvantaging anybody.
“And everywhere he goes, he makes that very clear even as recently last Friday when he was in Daura, he said the same thing.
“If there’s anybody working against a candidate, we don’t know officially.”
Meanwhile, the Information Minister also took Transparency International (TI) to task over its latest report, which saw Nigeria dropping five places in the 2021 Corruption Perception Index (CPI) ranking.
He explained: “We are not fighting corruption because we want to impress Transparency International or any organization whatsoever.
“We’re fighting corruption because we believe if we do not fight corruption, there’ll be no growth either in terms of the economy or even political. Therefore, what we do and what we’re putting in place to fight corruption is not because we want to be rated by anybody.
“If, for instance, what we’re doing catches the attention of Transparency International and they improve and give us better marks, so we’ll and go. However, I can assure you that we do not know what template TI is using.
“Whatever template they’re using is clearly oblivious of what this administration is doing, to fight corruption.
“Corruption fighting is not just by how many people have you arrested? How many people have you tried? How many people have you convicted? Of course, even in that respect, we have a very impressive record. Is it the EFCC or is it the ICPC?
“You see, if you look at what we’re doing even to make corrupt practices, almost impossible or difficult…I’ll just give you two examples. For instance, this administration, when funds were returned from the Abacha loot and other funds were recovered from the US, the UK, and Europe, this administration was that rather than pay these funds into the treasury and face the possibility of it being stolen or looted, the administration decided that we will put this money into a separate account and ask the National Sovereign Investment Fund to manage these funds, and we used this money for specific projects.
“And some of our legacy projects today actually are being financed from our money that have been stolen, which were returned and which we have kept. To me, this is one example of how to fight corruption. An example of how to ensure that people do not steal what has been recovered again.
“I make bold to say that we have been more proactive in fighting corruption and people are not willing to see what we have put in place in fighting corruption. And that’s why I gave that example of putting money aside and how those funds are being used.
“Again, the courage of this administration even to expose high ranking officials of administration who have ran foul of the law, is evidence of our determination and courage to fight corruption.
“So, we are not really worried or bothered about rating of the TI, because we know that everything we do is to ensure that we fight corruption the best way we know how to do.
“Like I said, if TI are not seeing this, then again, I think they have to change their template. But again, we’re not fighting corruption to impress them.”
