- Records A Decade’s Milestone In Corruption War
President Muhammadu Buhari’s highly publicized fight against corruption appears to be having a positive effect on the reputation of the country as Nigeria was not listed among the ten most corrupt countries in the rating just released by Transparency International.
Nigeria had consecutively been in the top ten for over a decade. Nigeria occupies the 28th position in the latest ranking.
The Corruption Perceptions Index ranked 176 countries on a scale of 0 (perceived to be highly corrupt) to 100 (perceived to be very clean).
In the 2016 Corruption Perceptions Index released on Wednesday July 26 by the Berlin-based ​organisation, Somalia was ranked the most corrupt country in the world for the 10th straight year.
Transparency International estimates that, “corruption, bribery, theft and tax evasion, cost developing countries US $1.26 trillion per year.”
Chairman of the group, José Ugaz, said in the most corrupt countries, “we often see democracies in decline and a disturbing pattern of attempts to crack down on civil society, limit press freedom, and weaken the independence of the judiciary.”
The 2016 CPI, showed that 122 of the 176 countries ranked finished with a score below 50, which Transparency International identifies as having a “serious corruption problem.”
The countries topping the list are generally clustered in Africa and Central Asia Several war-torn nations, such as South Sudan, Syria, Sudan, Yemen, Afghanistan and Iraq which are ranked in the top 10
Meanwhile, Denmark (90 points) was ranked as the least corrupt nation in the world for the fifth straight year. New Zealand tied for the top spot, while Finland, Sweden and Switzerland round out the top five.
The Corruption Perceptions Index conducted by Transparency International, commenced in the year 1995.