The Maritime Anti-Corruption Network (MACN) has called on the Federal Government to duplicate the reform model executed in the maritime industry in other sectors of Nigeria’s economy.
Their call followed the increasing rate of corruption in the nation’s public sector as released by the recent global ranking by Transparency International (TI).
According to MACN, the modest and incremental reforms introduced by it in partnership with the Nigeria Shippers Council (NSC), the Independent Corrupt and Other Related Practices Commission (ICPC) and Technical Unit on Anti-Corruption Reforms (TUGAR) and other port agencies through the instrumentality of the Port Service Support Portal (PSSP) housed by the NSC and the Project Steering Committee (PSC), the Nigerian Port Process Manual (NPPM), which led to the formation of the Port Standing Task Team (PSTT), are beginning to gain roots in the maritime sector.
The Maritime Anti-Corruption Network, which has Olusoji Apampa as the chief executive officer, stated that such collective action initiative is currently not replicated in other sectors and such a model is recommended for anti-corruption reforms in Nigeria.
“For anti-corruption efforts to be effective and bear results, preventive reforms involving all relevant stakeholders have shown to be more effective in the medium and long term. This we strongly recommend to the Nigerian Government,” MACN stated.
For instance, in 2021, MACN said that the demand for bribes, un-receipted payments, and other corrupt practices on the marine side of vessel clearance at Nigerian port dropped by 60.2 percent in two years, 2019 to 2021.
This is as about 266 incidents of demand for un-receipted payments in 2019, which dropped by 51.9 percent to 128 incidents in 2020, and this however dropped further by 60.2 percent to 51 incidents in 2021.
Read also: Shippers’ Council, ICRC synergise to revive 6 dry ports
Reacting to this, Olusoji Apampa, the chief executive officer of the Convention on Business Integrity, said Nigeria was beginning to build integrity in the maritime sector, even though, the country has not managed to fully fight corruption.
On the Transparency International (TI) report, MACN said that TI recently released its Corruption Perception Index (CPI) report for 2021, which disclosed that two-thirds of countries score below 50, indicating that they have serious corruption problems, while 27 countries are at their lowest score ever.
It further stated that of the poor performing countries, Nigeria featured prominently scoring 24 out of a possible 100 points and ranking an abysmal 154 out of the 180 countries ranked – a score described as abysmal.
“While countries like Kenya which was in the same bracket score with Nigeria in 2016 have progressively improved in its CPI index raking, Nigeria has progressively declined. While Kenya scored 26 points in 2016, it has currently moved up to 30 points in 2021, Nigeria on the other hand has moved from 28 points in 2016 to 24 in 2021,” MACN said.
The network said that compared to Ghana which has remained relatively stable at 43 points, Nigeria has continued to lag behind on the CPI and found company among countries such as Myanmar, Lebanon, Kyrgyzstan and Guatemala.
“Despite the usual claim by officials that the Nigerian government is making strides in its efforts at curtailing corruption, the failure of the Government to take actions on government officials indicted in grand corruption, reveals a lack of political will to comprehensively tackle corruption at its very roots,” MACN added.
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