It’s ‘petty, partisan’ to say corruption more prevalent now – Ahmed Lawan

Senate President Ahmed Lawan has described as “petty and partisan” the insinuation that corruption is more prevalent now than in previous administrations.

Lawan, who spoke on Monday at the Presidential Villa, Abuja, while fielding questions from State House reporters, said the current administration did not overlook any act of corruption in its ongoing fight against graft.

The presiding officer of the Senate, while reacting to a question on his views on the notion that corruption was more prevalent now than in previous administrations, 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’ll 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 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 fought its campaigns on the basis of fighting corruption. 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 that there’s more corruption in Nigeria today than before are simply trying to be partisan or petty.”