DESPITE President Muhammadu Buhari’s administration’s claim to be fighting corruption, the country’s Corruption Perception Index (CPI) for 2018 has not changed from what it was in 2017.
In a newly released 2018 CPI by the Transparency International, Nigeria still scored 27 as it did in 2017.
The country however moved up in the ranking from 144 to 148 out of 180 countries surveyed.
“With a score of 27, Nigeria remained unchanged on the CPI since 2017. Corruption was one of the biggest topics leading up to the 2015 election and it is expected to remain high on the agenda as the country prepares for this year’s presidential election taking place in February,” Transparency International said.
Between 2011 and 2018, Nigeria has scored 27 points four times —twice under former President Goodluck Jonathan and twice under the current administration.
2011: 24, 2012: 27, 2013: 25, 2014: 27, 2015: 26, 2016: 28, 2017: 27 and 2018: 27 respectively.
The Transparency International however, listed Nigeria, Angola, Botswana, South Africa and Kenya as all important countries to watch, given some promising political developments.
“The real test will be whether these new administrations will follow through on their anti-corruption commitments moving forward,” it said in a statement.
“Nigeria’s Buhari administration took a number of positive steps in the past three years, including the establishment of a presidential advisory committee against corruption, the improvement of the anti-corruption legal and policy framework in areas like public procurement and asset declaration, and the development of a national anti-corruption strategy, among others.”
Transparency International said, “these efforts have clearly not yielded the desired results. At least, not yet.”
According to the 2018 Index, Angola scored 19 points showing an increase of four points since 2015, while South Africa scores 43 though remains unchanged on the CPI since 2017 because under President Ramaphosa, the administration has taken additional steps to address anti-corruption on a national level, including through the work of the Anti-Corruption Inter-Ministerial Committee.
In all, Transparency International said this year’s Corruption Perceptions Index (CPI) presents a largely gloomy picture for Africa – only eight of 49 countries score more than 43 out of 100 on the index.
“Despite commitments from African leaders in declaring 2018 as the African Year of Anti-Corruption, this has yet to translate into concrete progress,” it said.
Seychelles scores 66 out of 100, to put it at the top of the region. Seychelles is followed by Botswana and Cabo Verde, with scores of 61 and 57 respectively.
At the very bottom of the index for the seventh year in a row, Somalia scores 10 points, followed by South Sudan (13) to round out the lowest scores in the region.
The organisation said the 2018 Corruption Perceptions Index (CPI) shows that the continued failure of most countries to significantly control corruption is contributing to a crisis of democracy around the world.
“With many democratic institutions under threat across the globe – often by leaders with authoritarian or populist tendencies – we need to do more to strengthen checks and balances and protect citizens’ rights,” said Patricia Moreira, Managing Director of Transparency International.
“Corruption chips away at democracy to produce a vicious cycle, where corruption undermines democratic institutions and, in turn, weak institutions are less able to control corruption.”