Nigeria ranked as the 26th most corrupt country in the world in the latest global ranking of public sector corruption, according to Transparency International's Corruption Perceptions Index (CPI) 2020 report released last week.

The report has given Buhari's critics more stick to beat him with over his administration's supposed fight against corruption.

The Federal Government, as usual, has pushed back strongly against the report, claiming that it was unfair to its anti-corruption efforts.

In his latest defence of the government, Shehu said during an interview on Channels TV on Monday, February 1, 2021 that the report is actually a judgement on Nigerians and not Buhari's fight against corruption.

He said, "If you look at the major indices they used in arriving at these conclusions, they used eight indices, six of which found Nigeria to be more or less in the same position - nothing is lost. 

"The two they dwelled on that caused this backslide are essentially Nigerian problems. When they looked at the varieties of democracy, they're talking about the political culture of this country - vote buying, all these things about thuggery. Is it Buhari that is a thug? We're not doing thuggery.

"And when they talk about the justice project, which is also a big minus in that report, they're talking about perceived corruption in the judiciary. These perceptions are essentially not correct."

Despite Shehu's claim, the CPI's methodology aggregates data from a number of different sources that provide perceptions among business-people and country experts of the level of corruption in the public sector, a sector directly under the government's control.

It principally assesses the ability of a government to contain corruption and enforce effective integrity mechanisms in the public sector.

The presidential aide went on to contradict himself on who's to blame when he condemned the report for not accounting for the government's efforts in ridding the country of corruption.

He said the report turned a blind eye to the government's reforms and its encouraging results that should have improved its dismal score.

Shehu said Nigerians used to see corruption as a normal thing that's part of daily life before the Buhari administration came in to change that perception.

"Why won't the report talk about all of the things that we're doing (right)?

"Core issues on which your credibility rests are ignored, and then they just dwell on filial matters and pass damning judgement. This is our concern," he complained.

The presidential aide said while the war on corruption has not been won, landmark achievements should be celebrated and reinforced.

Fighting corruption has been one of President Buhari's major focus, but statistics show he has made little progress in over five years.

The president last year suspended Ibrahim Magu as acting chairman of the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC) over numerous allegations of corruption.