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- Calls for media collaboration
From Adanna Nnamani, Abuja
The Chairman of the Independent Corrupt Practices and Other Related Offences Commission (ICPC), Professor Bolaji Owasanoye, has criticized Transparency International’s (TI) corruption perception index.
Owansanoye, who spoke at a two-day training session for journalists organized by the Commission in Abuja, said that the TI’s reports typically paint a misleading picture of corruption in poor nations.
He claimed that TI gives poorer ratings to nations that are victims of corruption than to those that get the proceeds of the crime.
By projecting the anti-corruption activities of the Commission, Owansanoye urged media professionals to help change the narrative.
“We’ve taken enough time to study it in the areas where criticisms were fair, and we needed to adjust and the places where it simply ignored the realities of the anticorruption efforts from a developing country perspective and, of course, from the point of view of the international political economy.
“Some of you might have noticed that this year TI’s release did not have as much grounding or impact, and this is not a Nigerian phenomenon; a lot of countries especially developing countries, are beginning to interrogate TI’s reports as to why the countries that are victims of corruption consistently rank poorer than the countries that are the recipients of the proceeds of corruption, and we do not interrogate why this happens.
“Of course, we understand very clearly that in developing countries like Nigeria, we have our challenges, and we do not deny that; we are trying to deal with them following the law and within the local challenges we face. But occasionally, when there are prospects to progress and advance the course, frustrations are encountered that are not immediately visible to observers.
“It is, therefore, time for us to begin to get involved in the narratives at least to present our side of the story the way it ought to be presented so that there can be a balance of the information exchange and then, of course, the journalists can make whatever they want to make of it as best as they understand the situation”, he stated.
In January, Transparency International Corruption Perception Index 2022 showed that Nigeria had moved up four places to 150th from 154th the previous year.
