Update: Blame Notorious Fact For Jonathan's Lie –Presidency

The Presidency said President Goodluck Jonathan relied on a ‘false’ media report in his claim that the country was rated second most improved in the fight against corruption by Transparency International.

A statement posted on the website of the Federal Ministry of Information signed by one Reno said the president relied on ‘notorious fact’ published by a newspaper on the country’s anti corruption index.

The statement said:....

“Our attention has been drawn to reports from some opposition leaning media houses alleging that Mr. President made some false claims about Nigeria’s standing in this year’s Transparency International anti-corruption rating.

“As is the practice worldwide, we accept the premise that whatever is published in the media and goes unchallenged is the truth. 

"On this issue, the media published their synopsis of the most recent Transparency International report and BusinessDay, a well respected newspaper with a bias for business reporting in a headline on the 12th of September 2012 with the titled ‘FG’s anti-corruption initiative impacts Nigeria’s global perception’ said “The survey on global corruption perceptions for 2011 versus 2012 showed that the third best improvement in the world was in Nigeria, with its score improving by 1.5 points”.

“The above quoted comments were relied upon in coming to the conclusion that Mr. President honestly came to in good faith. To this day, Transparency International has not disputed the findings of BusinessDay."

You may wish to know that Transparency International has dismissed the claim.