By Abiola Olawale
Transparency International (TI) on Thursday released the 2020 Corruption Perception Index (CPI) which indicated that Nigeria has yet again declined in the CPI as it ranked 149 out of 183 countries sampled in the perception polling.
According to the report released Thursday by Civil Society Legislative Advocacy Centre (CISLAC), Nigeria’s affiliate of TI, Nigeria reportedly scored 25 points out of an obtainable 100 points in the recent Index.
According to CISLAC, Nigeria consequently moved three places down compared to the 2019 results when the country ranked 146.
While announcing the outcome of the polling, Auwal Ibrahim Musa, who is the Executive Director of CISLAC, noted that Nigeria’s score has been on the decline by an average of 0.8 yearly in the past four years.
The CISLAC disclosed that the sampled polling report which derived its focal thrust from numerous challenges confronting Nigeria, including the on-going COVID-19 pandemic, insecurity, unemployment cases, increase in government borrowing index, among others, are indications that government needs to be more alive to its tasks and responsibilities in terms of its policies and programmes.
Some highlights of the 2020 report, further claimed that the fight against corruption will not be successful” until there is enough anti-corruption legal frameworks, non-interference of public office holders in the operation of law enforcement agencies, among others”.
The report which made a comprehensive analysis, sought to give reasons why TI ranked 149 in the recent CPI.
The report reads among other things thus: “To explain why Nigeria may not have improved in the fight against corruption. Although there is a various extent of the below-mentioned factors on the unfavourable ranking this year, we feel that these areas require immediate improvement for the sake of the well-being of ordinary Nigerians. In the past years, we witnessed nepotism and favoritism in the appointment and promotion of some public officers.
“For example, all Nigerian remember the controversy which trailed the decision of the National Judicial Council(NJC) when at least 8 of the 33 judges recommended for appointment by the NJC were either children or relatives of current retires Justices of the supreme or appeal courts…
“Prevalence of bribery and extortion in the Nigerian Police; The year 2020 witnessed the #End SARS protests which saw young people across the nation demanding an end to police brutality and corruption. A factor that led to this protest was widespread bribery and extortion by law enforcement officials especially the police….
“Reports around the commercialization of employment into various institutions including admission into various tertiary educational institutions put the nation in bad light. The extortion for the acquisition of services like healthcare, passports renewal and obtaining of visas creates a negative perception of corruption in Nigeria.
“The first and second national corruption surveys conducted by the United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime (UNODC) in partnership with the government’s National Bureau of Statistics (NBS) and released in 2017 and 2019 both showed the Nigerian Police is the institution with the highest prevalence of bribery amongst the institutions measured.
“While there have been commendable efforts by the Police Complaints Response Unit (CRU) in reducing police abuses, there is a need to scale up the efforts of the unit to meet the demands of citizens as contained in the Police Act 2020.”
“Security sector corruption: From violent extremism and insurgency to piracy, kidnapping for ransom, attacks on oil infrastructure, drug trafficking, and organized crime, Nigeria faces a host of complex security challenges. These threats typically involve irregular forces and are largely societally based.
“They are most prevalent and persistent in marginalized areas where communities feel high levels of distrust toward the government—often built up over many years. At their root, these security challenges are symptoms of larger failures in governance…Nigeria’s security system is also perceived to be politicized. Leaders are often appointed based on their political allegiances rather than on their experience or capabilities in law enforcement. As a result, the quality of leadership at the helm of affairs suffers.
“The continuous opaqueness in the utilization of security votes contributes to corruption perception in the country and this process must be reformed especially when we have security agencies living and working in very poor conditions. Multiple reports of police officers protesting non-payment of allowances for election duties are now seen. The result of this is the widespread kidnappings, banditry and terrorism ravaging different parts of the country.”
The report further stated: “Absence of transparency in the COVID-19 pandemic response; With the COVID-19 pandemic out of Nigeria’s responsibility, there has been a lack of transparency in the emergency response of the government. Coupled with the gap in coordination, the process has been fraught by the incessant flouting of procurement guidelines, hoarding of relief materials, and diversion of these materials which are then used as personal souvenirs presented to political party loyalists and close associates.
“We find it disturbing that in some cases, supplies donated by a group of well-meaning Nigerian business persons, corporate entities, development partners, and others under the Coalition Against COVID-19 (CACOVID) were left inexplicably undistributed, and in some cases rotten, by the federal and state governments. While these occurrences are not specific to Nigeria, citizens are yet to see concrete action by the anti-graft agencies on these issues.”
To address these challenges, the report urged the government and its various agencies to rise up to the task and goal of eradicating and stamping out corruption in the country.
The report added: “We call on revenue-generating agencies like the Federal Inland Revenue Service, the National Ports Authority, and the Nigerian Customs Service to ensure that they improve efforts to curb extortion and bribery among their officials. There is also a need to operationalize the anti-corruption strategy to ensure that anti-corruption efforts are not concentrated at the federal level alone. Also, other arms of government need to be involved in the fight against corruption. It shouldn’t be left alone to the executive alone.”
