Nigeria, out of the 19 countries in the West African region, is ranked the fourth most corrupt country, the Transparency International Corruption Perception Index (CPI) 2019 has shown.
Following the release of the new index, Nigeria has recieved knocks from individuals and groups, insisting that the country claims to be winning anti-coreuption war, but the country is still very much corrupt.
The CPI is an index published annually by Transparency International since 1995 which ranks countries “by their perceived levels of public sector corruption, as determined by expert assessments and opinion surveys.”
Delia Ferreira Rubio, chair of the organisation while in the newly released index, asked the government to urgently address what she describes as the corrupting role of big money in political party financing and the undue influence it exerts on political systems.
According to the index, obtained from the transparency international’s website, Nigeria, in country comparison, has moved down from 148 place to 146, out of 180 countries in the 2019 corruption Perception Index (CPI), two places down compared to 2018.
The index showed that Nigeria scores 26 out of 100 points in 2019 CPI, falling back by one point compared to 2018.
Usually, the Corruption Perceptions Index ranks 180 countries and territories by their perceived levels of public sector corruption, according to experts and business people.
“This year’s analysis shows corruption is more pervasive in countries where big money can flow freely into electoral campaigns and where governments listen only to the voices of wealthy or well-connected individuals,” it stated.
According to the index, the sub-Saharan Africa region is classified as the lowest-performing region while Western Europe is the highest-scoring region.
Also, the CPI 2019 further revealed that there is “a staggering number of countries are showing little to no improvement in tackling corruption.”
However, it said the only way Nigeria can eradicate corruption is by “reducing big money in politics and promoting inclusive political decision-making are essential to curb corruption.”
“In the last year, anti-corruption movements across the globe gained momentum as millions of
people joined together to speak out against corruption in their governments.
“The index ranks 180 countries and territories by their perceived levels of public sector corruption, according to experts and business people.
“It uses a scale of zero to 100, where zero is highly corrupt and 100 is very clean. More than two-thirds of countries score below 50 on this year’s CPI, with an average score of just 43. Similar to previous years, the data shows that despite some progress, a majority of countries are still failing to tackle public sector corruption effectively.
The top countries with highest corruption perception are: New Zealand and Denmark, with scores of 87 each, followed by Finland (86), Singapore (85), Sweden (85) and Switzerland (85).
The bottom countries are Somalia, South Sudan and Syria with scores of 9, 12 and 13, respectively.
This followed by Yemen (15), Venezuela (16), Sudan (16), Equatorial Guinea (16) and Afghanistan (16).
“In the last eight years, only 22 countries significantly improved their CPI scores, including Greece, Guyana and Estonia. In the same period, 21 countries significantly decreased their scores, including Canada, Australia and Nicaragua. In the remaining 137 countries, the levels of corruption show little to no change.
“This year, Western Europe and the EU is the highest scoring region with an average of 66/100, while Sub-Saharan Africa is the lowest scoring region with 32 points. Both regions have kept an unchanged average since last year.
Adducing reasons for the perceived corruption, the index indicated that “from fraud that occurs at the highest levels of government to petty bribery that blocks access to basic public services like health care and education, citizens are fed up with corrupt leaders and institutions.”
It said the fraud fuels a growing lack of trust in government and further erodes public confidence in political leaders, elected officials and democracy.
“The current state of corruption speaks to a need for greater political integrity in many countries. To have any chance of curbing corruption, governments must strengthen checks and balances, limit the influence
of big money in politics and ensure broad input in political decision-making.
“Public policies and resources should not be determined by economic power or political influence, but by fair consultation and impartial budget allocation,” the newly released index has stated.
However, while reacting to Nigeria’s corruption ranking, the Civil Society Legislative Advocacy Centre (CISLAC) has said the rating of Nigerian is not impartial because the image of the country is dismal.
Auwal Musa Rafsanjani, head of CISLAC while addressing a press conference in Abuja on Thursday, explained that chief among many reasons why the country is still corrupt is that the rule of law is selective – the rich and powerful do not play by the rules.
According to him, “backlash against media and civil society has damaged Nigeria anticorruption effort, there is institutionalized corruption in political parties and political integrity, poor understanding of the definition of corruption and how to tackle it, anti-corruption legal and policy frame work is underdeveloped, and there is inability to implement recommendations on anti-corrupton, as well as corruption in vital sectors such as oil and gas and defense is endemic.”
Rafsanjani, however, suggested that government must achieve greater improvement in anti-corruption by forging stronger collaboration and coordination with non-state actors involved in the fight.
Meanwhile, the Senate has said more powers should be granted to the Auditor General of the federation to tackle corruption.
This is as the Senate has vowed to pass the Federal Audit Bill on resumption. This, it said will fix the gaps in the audit law and help in eradicating corruption.
Senator Ibrahim Hadejia, Vice Chairman of the Senate Public Accounts Committee while addressing newsmen in Abuja, attributed corruption to federal ministries , agencies and departments ’ who he said have had “flagrant disregard to National Assembly’s directive on audit report submission” due to absence of an enabling law.
“There is an attempt to address that by trying to get the Federal Audit Bill passed on resumption.
“As the law stands now , even constitutionally , the Auditor General for the Federation has serious limitations as to how far he can go in ensuring that the MDAs submit their audited accounts.
“In fact, part of the constitution actually ties his hands . So , the MDAs are hiding under that lacuna not to do the needful .”
Hadejia added that the proposed Act of the parliament would address the issue of funding which he described as a major challenge to the office of the Auditor -General.
“We have a country that more or less focuses on what happens after a crime has been committed using the anti- graft agencies rather than focusing on prevention,” he stated.
Solomon Ayado, Abuja
