Show me ‘the facts’ to prove that corruption thrives under Buhari’s administration — Lawan

SENATE President Ahmad Lawan has said those discrediting the Buhari administration that graft and corrupt tendencies are more prevalent under it than the previous administrations should come up with concrete facts to prove their claims.

Saying the detractors of the current administration are being economical with the truth, Lawan said such a claim is political and petty.

He was addressing State House correspondents after the second National Summit on Diminishing Corruption and launch of the National Ethics and Integrity Policy by the Independent Corrupt Practices and Other Related Offences Commission (ICPC).

The Senate President noted that when prosecution of a case of corrupt practice drags into years, such is an indication that something is wrong and a tacit support for corruption.

According to him, no government in the history of Nigeria has approached the campaign against corruption as the Buhari administration.

Lawan said: “I don’t know who they are and I don’t know what their facts are. But I will not speak to speculations; I speak to facts. I want to see the facts that there’s more corruption in this administration than the previous administrations.

“You will recall that in a particular former administration, we know that somebody once said that what people accused the government of corruption was simple stealing. This administration does not see anything that appears like corruption or thievery and leaves it untreated. So, I believe it depends on who is talking.

“If you have an opposition, it is likely the opposition will tell you there’s so much ‘persecution’ of the opposition, that there’s so much corruption in this administration than the previous one. But we know the previous administrations.

“Let me be a bit more decent and may be non-political. But I want to tell you that this administration has done so well because we campaigned on the basis of three pillars of anti-corruption, the fight against insurgency and insecurity across the country and the revitalisation of our economy.

“So, no administration or political party, in the history of Nigeria that fought its campaigns on the basis of fighting corruption in Nigeria. In fact, there were administrations that never mentioned corruption in their entire tenure.

“This administration has stood firmly, trying to fight corruption, and I want to believe that those who are saying there’s more corruption in Nigeria today than before are simply trying to be partisan or petty.”