Transparency International (TI) said Nigeria has dropped four places on its latest Corruption Perception Index (CPI) ranking released on Tuesday in Abuja.
It said the country fell from 150th to 154th position out of 180 countries assessed in the 2022 ranking, despite Nigeria maintaining its previous year’s score of 24 out of 100 points.
The Corruption Perception Index (CPI) is Transparency International’s tool for measuring the levels of corruption in various countries around the world, and the country can score maximum of 100 points, and zero as the least. Zero indicates the worst-performing country, while 100 is the best-ranked.
The latest TI’s ranking may be a pointer that Nigeria’s avowed fight against corruption may either have been mired in the murky waters of the country’s politics, ensuring that little or no result is produced.
Published exclusively in Nigeria by the Civil Society Legislative Advocacy (CISLAC), the National Chapter of TI, “the index reveals that Nigeria scored 24 out of 100 points in the 2022 CPI, compared to 24 points in the 2021 CPI. There has been no change in country scoring between 2021 and 2022. In the country comparison for the 2022 CPI, Nigeria ranks 150 of 180 countries compared to 154 on the 2021 CPI results”, the report states.
According to CISLAC, the CPI for Nigeria aggregates data from eight different sources that provide perceptions by country experts and businesspeople on the level of corruption in the public sector.
ALSO READ: Using money to buy money: How POS operators exploit customers amid cash swap saga
It noted that while the index does not show specific incidences of corruption in the country, it indicates the perception of corruption in Nigeria, and it is impartial, ejective and globally acknowledged as the most widely used cross-country parameter for measuring corruption.
“It is important to stress that this is not an assessment of Nigeria’s anti-graft agencies who are making commendable efforts in the fight against corruption in Nigeria, despite the political interference they face. Rather, the CPI goes beyond the anti-graft agencies,” CISLAC stated.
CISLAC/TI-Nigeria noted that while Nigeria moved four places up on the county ranking, the country maintained its previous score of 24, which is its lowest score on the CPI since 2012, suggesting a slowdown in the steady decline observed in the previous three CPI’s.
Citing some of the reasons responsible for the country’s fall in ranking, CISLAC pointed to the failure to investigate and provide citizens with answers n previous leaks like the FinCen files, the Panama Papers, the Paradise Papers, and the Pandora Papers.
Another reason it gave is the increase in Oil theft, which is happening despite the presence of numerous security agencies in Nigeria, and the “increased spending on security is a major challenge in Nigeria’s anti-corruption efforts”.
Opaqueness of the subsidy regime in 2022, lack of transparency in constituency projects, and lack of transparency and accountability in the security sector, CISLAC noted has weakened the country’s fight against corruption.
and then