President Muhammadu Buhari
President Muhammadu Buhari
Anti-corruption war: A forward or backward
march?
President Muhammadu Buhari may have frontally tackling
corruption as one of the cardinal programmes of his government.
The APC-led administration may also claim to have been
prosecuting past corrupt government officials and in the process
recovered humongous sum of looted funds since 2015.
But Nigeria is still a country reeking with corruption, if the
Transparency International’s(TI) 2018 Corruption Perception Index
(CPI) is anything to go by.
According to the newly released index published by Transparency
International Chapter in Nigeria, the country scored 27 out of 100
points in the 2018 CPI, thus, maintaining the same mark it scored
in the 2017 CPI exercise.
In a comparative analysis among countries, the TI’s document
ranked Nigeria 144 out of 180 countries last year as opposed to 148
out of 180 countries in the 2017 CPI study.
Although, the ranking shows that Nigeria moved up four (4)
places, it only means that four other countries have scored worse
while Nigeria stagnated, observed TI.
It says Nigeria, in the comity of global nations, is still
perceived and regarded as highly corrupt.
While bemoaning the abysmal rating of Nigeria in the CPI, Mr.
Auwal Musa Rafsanjani, expressed displeasure that the country
failed to improve or progress in the perception of corruption in
public administration last year.
The TI’s Nigeria Chapter Head spoke at a press conference in
Abuja.
Rafsanjani, said concerted efforts are required for corruption
to be stamped out in the country, maintaining that the lack of
progress against corruption as testified by the 2018’s edition of
CPI is a consequence of partial or non-implementation of
recommendations issued by corruption experts and activists.
“The CPI aggregates data from a number sources that provide
perceptions by business community and country experts of the level
of corruption in the public sector. In the case of Nigeria, African
Development Bank Perception Survey, Bertelsmann Foundation
Transformation Index, Economist Intelligence Unit Country Ratings,
PRS International Country Risk Guide, the World Economic Forum
Executive Opinion Survey, World Justice Project Rule of Law Index
and Varieties of Democracy Project, are the impartial,
well-respected, statistically significant and evidence-based
sources,” he said.
He said the public image of the anti-corruption campaign in
Nigeria is tarnished domestically and internationally with
extremely slow progress to implement several anti-corruption
commitments made by the governments.
The TI boss urged government and legislature to strengthen
anti-corruption institutions, while also providing adequate
protection and encouragement for whistle-blowers.
“Let us underscore that “acting” leadership of any
anti-corruption and law enforcement institution is falling short
when these institutions should spearhead the combating pervasive
corruption and organised crime as in the case of Nigeria.
“Furthermore, 14 commitments were made as part of the Open
Government Partnership effort. In some cases, a modest progress has
been made. However, majority of the 14 commitments are unfulfilled.
20 commitments were also made by the President Buhari’s
administration in London 2016 during an anti-corruption conference.
Of this number, not a single commitment has been completed three
years thereafter. 50% of anti-corruption commitments are under way
while 25% are inactive. 25% of commitments are in progress,” he
added.
Auwal Rafsanjani noted that public participation and active
reporting of corruption has been seriously hindered by the absence
of the Whistle-blower Protection Act that would ensure the
protection of the Whistle-blowers from dismissals, suspensions,
harassments, discriminations or intimidation.
Meanwhile, the 2018 CPI released by Transparency International
reveals that the continued failure of most countries to
significantly control corruption is contributing to a crisis in
democracy around the world.
It also showed a disturbing link between corruption and the
health of democracies, where countries with higher rates of
corruption also have weaker democratic institutions and political
rights.
Checks by PR Nigeria shows that only 20 countries significantly
improved their CPI scores, including Argentina, Senegal, Guyana and
Cote D’voire. Equally troubling is the fact that 16 countries
significantly decreased their scores, including Australia, Chile,
Malta, Hungary and Turkey.
By PRNigeria