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Nigeria dropped five places in the 2021 Corruption Perceptions Index (CPI) released last week by Transparency International (TI). According to the Country Representative of TI and the Executive Director of Civil Society Legislative Advocacy Centre (CISLAC), Auwal Rafsanjani, Nigeria scored 24 out of 100 points and was ranked 154 out of 180 countries surveyed, pushing it back five places from the rank of 149 in 2020.
This is reportedly the country’s second consecutive year of a downward slide on the TI’s CPI ranking, having dropped from 26 in 2019 to 25 in the 2020 assessment, and further to 24 in the latest 2021 record. In TI’s assessment, Nigeria was ranked 136th in 2015; 136th in 2016; 148th in 2017; 144th in 2018; 146th in 2019, 149th in 2020 and now, 154.th
The CPI is TI’s tool for measuring the levels of corruption in the systems of various countries around the world. The maximum points a country can score is 100 points and the least is zero. Zero signifies the worst performing countries and 100, the best-ranked. In arriving at the ranking, CPI aggregates data from different sources that provide perceptions by experts and business people on the level of corruption in the public sector.
Nigeria did not fare well in the 2021 CPI because of security sector corruption, failure to investigate high profile corruption cases and prevent illicit financial flows, absence of asset recovery and the protection of whistle-blowers and other key anti-corruption legal frameworks. Other factors included judicial challenges, corruption in the COVID-19 response, the Twitter ban, shrinking civic space and intimidation of human rights defenders. The latest CPI ranking placed Nigeria as the second most corrupt country in West Africa after Guinea that was ranked 150 on the global index.
With the latest corruption perceptions index, the claim by the Federal Government of reducing corruption has been punctured. The CPI damning report is an indication that the current strategies of tackling corruption are seemingly not working. The corruption report is a further confirmation of fears by many concerned citizens that corruption is getting worse in the country. While the corruption index report is the general perception of corruption in the country, it is nevertheless a sad commentary on the country. The government and the anti-graft agencies should re-tool the anti-corruption strategies and make them more effective.
This is the time for agencies and officials of the government to join issues with TI over the report instead of living in denial. Rather, government should see the TI report as a wake-up call to rejig the war against corruption in all ramifications. The recent disclosure by the Office of the Auditor-General for the Federation that about 12 Ministries, Departments and Agencies (MDAs) failed to remit N5 billion worth of taxes is an indication that corruption is pervasive in the country. It is a tacit confirmation of TI’s report.
Therefore, the corruption challenge must be holistically tackled because it affects the reputation of the country and the integrity of the government. Upon assumption of office in 2015, tackling corruption headlong was one of the promises of President Muhammadu Buhari’s administration. With less than one and half years to quit the stage, the war on corruption has been feeble and ineffective because of so many reasons, including those cited by TI in its report.
What is urgently needed now is the political will to really prosecute the war against graft without politicising it. In order to win the war, the anti-graft agencies must jettison the usual recourse to media trial of suspects. The war must also not be partisan or deployed to muzzle the opposition or the so-called enemies of the administration.
Above all, there is need to put in place measures to discourage corruption. The government will also do something to address the major triggers of corruption such as poverty, unemployment, nepotism, bad governance, alienation and social inequality. Government can still fight the virus and arrest the sliding fortunes of the country on corruption index. The courts, the anti-graft agencies and the police should be strengthened and made more effective to tackle corruption. Let those accused of corruption be diligently prosecuted according to the extant laws of the country.
Nigeria’s abysmal CPI rating will discourage the inflow of foreign investments. Although no country can be said to be free from corruption, the level of sleaze in Nigeria is troubling. That is why all hands must be on deck to tackle the menace.
