Femi Adesina, the Special Adviser to President Muhammadu Buhari on Media and Publicity, on Friday said his principal has been successful in his anti-corruption crusade.
Newsbreak.ng reports that writing in his weekly column, Adesina said the number of convictions secured by anti-graft agencies is a proof the incumbent government has done well in its fight against corruption.
“One of the ways you measure the success of the anti-corruption war is the number of convictions you have recorded. And this has been incremental since 2016,” Adesina said.
“There are many agencies involved in the war, but let’s just take the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC).
“In 2016, the EFCC recorded 195 convictions for different economic crimes. The following year, the figure dropped slightly to 189. But in 2018, it shot up astronomically to 312, and there has been no looking back.
“The year 2019 saw the anti-graft agency successfully prosecuting 1,280 people, followed by 976 in 2020. In 2021, the figure was 2,220.
“Kindly compare this trend to what happened in the previous epoch. 2010, 68 convictions. 2011, 67. In 2012, 87, 2013, 117, and 2014, there were 126 convictions. This shows that EFCC got more pep, more verve under Buhari.
“Yet, what do you hear in the country: we don’t see anything being done. Really? The only blind man is not the one who can’t see, but also the one who refuses to see.
“When they say they don’t see the successes of the anti-corruption war, and you bring these kind of facts, and you challenge them to contradict or demolish them with their own facts. They then begin to ramble, like my friend on television.
“There’s a saying: “If you don’t say you are, nobody will say thou art.” If you refuse to see what is being done despite the unimpeachable statistics, then you are of all men most miserable, and to be pitied.”
Discussion about this post