Nigeria’s Ambassador-designate to Mexico, Reno Omokri, has argued that the country is not as corrupt as many people around the world believe.
According to him, global corruption rankings do not fully reflect Nigeria’s culture and realities.
Omokri made the remarks on Channels Television’s Sunday Politics.
He said the country’s corruption perception rating had improved under President Bola Tinubu’s administration, abut insisted that global organisations often judge Nigeria using standards that do not consider local cultural practices.
“Nigeria is not as corrupt as the world thinks it is because the metrics they are using to gauge corruption are global metrics and they do not take into account the particular culture of Nigeria,” he said.
Omokri pointed to the tradition of showing appreciation to public officials who perform their duties well.
He said that while such gestures could be seen as corruption by organisations like Transparency International, they had long existed in Nigeria even before colonial rule.
“When a public official does the job very well in this country, people show appreciation. Transparency International sees that as corruption, but it is not corruption,” he said.
Omokri said Nigeria should stop allowing foreign organisations to define its image and instead tell its own story.
“We have to write our own story. If we allow these people to continue writing our stories, they will always see us as people who are poor and backward,” he said.
He also highlighted Lagos State’s economic growth, saying its Gross Domestic Product had grown significantly under Governor Babajide Sanwo-Olu.
According to him, Lagos had grown from a GDP of less than $100 billion six years ago to about $259 billion in purchasing power parity terms, while income levels had also increased.
Omokri further challenged claims that Nigeria was unsafe, citing the annual Detty December festivities in Lagos.
“Every year, 1.2 million tourists go to Lagos for Detty December. That is the biggest single tourism event in Africa, and not one person has been killed or injured,” he said.