Corruption is getting worse in Nigeria, according to the latest
corruption perception index (CPI) released by Transparency International
(TI) on Wednesday.
While the country scored 27/100 and was
ranked 136th in 2016, the latest CPI scores Nigeria 28/100 but with a
rank of No. 148 out of 180 countries surveyed — a significant 12 places
below where it was the previous year.
This will come as a blow to
the President Muhammadu Buhari administration who came into office on
the strength of his anti-corruption credential.
Although the
administration has put many suspects on trial and seized assets of
politicians and government officials, it has also been accused of
condoning corrupt practices by top government officials.
The
index, which ranks 180 countries and territories by their perceived
levels of public sector corruption in the opinion of experts and
business people, uses a scale of 0 to 100, where 0 is highly corrupt and
100 is very clean, according to TI.
NIGERIA NOW MORE CORRUPT THAN KENYA
An
analysis by TheCable shows that Kenya, which was rated more corrupt
than Nigeria in 2016, has now overtaken the west African country,
climbing to 143 from 145.
Other sub Saharan African countries
ranked higher than Nigeria are Botswana — whose joint 34 rank is the
best in Africa — as well as Rwanda (joint 48) and Nambia (joint 53).
Nigeria is ranked 148 along with Guinea and Comoros.
In 2015, Nigeria scored 26/100 and was ranked 136 — although only 168 countries and territories were surveyed then.
New
Zealand maintains the No. 1 rank with a score of 89/100, Denmark No. 2
with 88, while Finland, Norway and Switzerland are joint No. 3 with 85.
‘CORRUPTION FIGHT IN NIGERIA STALLED’
Meanwhile,
the Civil Society Legislative Advocacy Centre (CISLAC), the national
contact of TI, says it is “seriously worried” about the new but
unfavorable trend in the fight against corruption in the country, as
buttressed in the newly published CPI.
“On the African continent,
Nigeria ranks 32nd position in Africa out of 52 assessed countries in
2017. While Botswana leads the continent with the record of competent
and largely corruption-free public administration, Nigeria hopelessly
falls behind with 27 points. In West Africa, Nigeria is the second worst
country out of 17 countries leaving only Guinea Bissau behind,” CISLAC
said in a statement released on Wednesday evening.
“This fresh
setback in the fight against corruption confirms that grand-corruption,
political corruption, nepotism, favoritism and bribery persist in
Nigeria at all levels. It is CISLAC’s view that the negative perception
is mainly a consequence of the inability to combat grand corruption and
astronomical plundering of public coffers costing the Nigerian tax
payers around 25% of annual GDP. Since the current administration has
come to power on the anti-corruption ticket, no significant politically
exposed person has been duly sentenced on anti-corruption charges,” it
added