We’ve driven corruption under the table and made it unattractive, says Lai Mohammed

Minister of Information and Culture, Alhaji Lai Mohammed has said that it would be unfair for Nigerians to measure the current administration’s achievements in the fight against corruption by the number of convictions it has secured.

The Minister said this on Monday when he featured on a live TVC News Programme.

Listing what he claimed are the achievements of the administration, Mohammed said: “Under this administration, we insisted and have succeeded in ensuring that all payments and revenues are paid into the TSA.

“Before we came in, the Federal Government had over 2,000 different accounts in various banks, which resulted in paying several billions of naira in charges.

“The government then also never had an idea of how much it had as revenue but today over N9.3 trillion has gone into the TSA and that is why it is possible for us to invest, especially in the area of infrastructure and social investment programmes.”

On the fight against corruption, he said: “When we say the fight against corruption is successful, it is because we have laid the foundation that would make it difficult for people to engage in the evil act.

“For us, the success of the fight against corruption is the fact that we have driven corruption under the table and made it unattractive as it was before. Those who are corrupt are doing so with the fear of the law. It will be progressive, become more and more difficult in Nigeria for corruption to be attractive.”

Mohammed disagreed with the allegation that the government’s anti-corruption fight is against perceived enemies and the opposition, saying it’s all a misconception.

“We had 16 years of unbroken rule by the PDP so the likely people who will be accused of misuse of resources should be the people who were in charge,” he said. “We also have some former governors who decamped to APC who have also been convicted.”