Nigeria has dropped down the pecking order in the corruption perception index (CPI) of the Trancepancy International (TI).
According to report released by the body on Tuesday, Nigeria dropped one place, from 25 to 24 in the ranking index.
That is, the country is more corrupt in 2021 than in the previous two years.
In the report, released exclusively in Nigeria by the National Chapter of TI – the Civil Society Legislative Advocacy Centre (CISLAC) – and signed by Auwal Ibrahim Musa (Rafsanjani) Executive Director, CISLAC, the index disclosed that Nigeria scored 24 out of 100 points in the 2021 CPI, falling back one point compared to the 2020 CPI.
In the country comparison for this year, Nigeria ranks 154 out of 180 countries – five places down compared to the 2020 CPI results.
The CPI aggregates data from eight different sources provided the perceptions by country experts and business people on the level of corruption in the public sector.
“While the index does not show specific incidences of corruption in the country, it indicates the perception of corruption in Nigeria. The index is completely impartial, objective and globally acknowledged as the most widely used cross-country parameter for measuring corruption,” the report said.
This CPI result comes at a point when the Nigeria as a country is battling with rising nation-wide insecurity, high unemployment rate and damning revelations around public finance management by the Auditor General of the Federation and investigative journalists, amongst others.
While the data used for the CPI is not collected by CISLAC/TI-Nigeria or any of our partners, the data collection is done by independent and reputable organisations with sound methodologies.
The report highlighted how reports of corruption are gathered, stressing the CPI goes beyond the anti-graft agencies’ report on corruption and that the report is not an assessment of Nigeria’s anti-graft agencies who are making commendable efforts in reducing (in the fight against) corruption in Nigeria despite the political interference they face.
“In October last year, we received the report of the committee set up by the government in March 2021 to review Nigeria’s rating on the 2020 CPI shortly after CISLAC/TI-
“Nigeria released the 2020 CPI. CISLAC/TI-Nigeria sees this move as a good step and would like to call on the government to further examine the weaknesses listed below and consider actions which will tackle systemic corruption and salvage Nigeria’s deteriorating image when it comes to corruption.
“Accordingly, CISLAC/TI-Nigeria have listed key weaknesses to explain why Nigeria may not have improved in the fight against corruption. We feel that these areasrequire immediate improvement for the sake of the well-being of ordinary Nigerians and the economy,” it said.
Some of the weaknesses militating against war on corruption, according to the report, include the “Non-Compliance/Internal Control Weaknesses Issues in Ministries, Departments and Agencies (MDAs),” adding “report for 2019 published by the Office of the Auditor General of the Federation in November 2021, have left Nigerians in awe. The level of financial recklessness, abuse of budgetary processes, and failure of Ministries, Departments and Agencies (MDAs) in following the due process of appropriation is disturbing. For example, The Auditor General revealed that the sum of N49bn was spent by nine MDAs without appropriation by the National Assembly. This is in gross violation of section 80 (4) of the 1999 Constitution (As Amended).”
The report further said that the recent revelations made on the 17th of January 2022 by BudgIT on the duplication of projects in the 2022 budget despite a rising unemployment rate of 33% was another prove of the endemic nature of corruption in Nigeria.
The systemic corruption in the Nigeria Police Force has sadly continued unabated and with the police at the frontline of Nigeria’s criminal justice system with enormous powers to investigate and prosecute crimes. This weakness puts the country in bad light, it added.
“As a matter of fact, the Police was indicted by the Auditor General’s report onthe “NonCompliance/Internal Control Weaknesses Issues in Ministries, Departments and Agencies (MDAs) published in November 2021” and Nigerians are still struggling to understand how 178,459 arms and ammunition were missing from the armoury of the Nigeria Police without trace. Of this figure, 88, 078 were AK 47 assault rifles and 3,907 assorted rifles and pistols. For context, these arms are enough to arm a force equivalent to about 25% of the current strength of the Nigeria Police at 370,000 which gives an explanation on the level of insecurity in the country.
“Findings from TheCable Index and the Council of Foreign Relations show that 5,067 Nigerians were killed owing to insecurity in 2021, and an average of 14 Nigerians were killed daily. According to these findings, this shows a 52.3% rise in reported killings when compared to 2020.
“In addition to the above, the Auditor general’s report showed that over 17,000 police officers had future dates of employment with hundreds employed before their date of birth,” it said.
Also, failure to Investigate high profile corruption cases and prevent Illicit Financial Flows (IFFs) were other weaknesses that marked Nigeria out as as corrupt country.
The report indicated that despite the gains the anti-graft agencies have made in their efforts to combat corruption in 2021 with an increase in convictions, it has fallen short of public expectations.
“While we commend the arrest of cyber criminals and call on the anti-graft agencies to do more, there is a need to investigate high profile political cases including those of individuals who have switched political affiliations. A case in point is the Pandora Papers revelations which is one of the biggest ever corruption leaks led by the International Consortium of Investigative Journalists (ICIJ) and over 600 journalists from 117 countries, including journalists from Nigeria’s Premium Times. A close look at the Pandora Papers published in 2021 reveals that Nigeria tops the African continent when looking at the number of those exposed. Following the pattern of two previous leaks (i.e., the Paradise Papers and Panama Papers, which were released in 2016 and 2017, respectively), the Pandora Papers exposes systems and secrecy jurisdictions that enable and abate crime, corruption, and illicit dealings by politicians, billionaires, influential individuals, and their enablers globally.
“Since its release on October 3, 2021, Nigerians are yet to see any action or get answers from anti-graft agencies whose work has been made easier by the diligent reporters from Premium Times which highlighted stolen or suspiciously acquired assets to be investigated. With the elections fast approaching, and the response so far, politicalcorruption is expected to be on the rise and anti-graft agencies need to live up to the expectations of Nigerians.”
The report said the absence of asset recovery, protection of whistle-blowers, and other key anti-corruption legal frameworks, the continuous absence of a Whistle Blower Protection Legislation leaves Nigerian anti-corruption agencies deprived of key insider intelligence, the delay in delivery of judgement, in treating high profile cases of corruption and shrinking of civic space and intimidation of human rights defenders, are all but dent on the anti corruption war.
TI advised that the relevant anti-graft agencies should investigate allegations of corruption by politically exposed persons irrespective of political party, emphasing that other arms of government need to be involved in the fight against corruption, rather living it alone to the executive arm.
“In line with our vison and mission, we are willing to work with state and non-state actors on how to collectively improve Nigeria’s fight against corruption as we have always done in the past,” summed the CISLAC.
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