CISLAC expresses worry over Nigeria’s high corruption ranking by Transparency International

The Civil Society Legislative Advocacy Centre (CISLAC), a Civil Society Organisation (CSO) on Thursday expressed worry over Nigeria’s 148th corruption ranking out of 180 countries assessed in 2017.

The Programme Officer of CISLAC, Mr Okeke Anya, said that the ranking was contained in the recent publication by the Corruption Perception Index (CPI) 2017.

Anya said that out of 100 points signaling maximum transparency and no corruption, Nigeria scored 27 points.

“CISLAC is seriously worried about the new but unfavourable trend in the fight against corruption in country, as buttressed in the newly published CPI 2017.

“It shows that Nigeria is slipping further down in the international ranking on the fight against corruption.

“These results show a slight deterioration in the scoring of the perception about corruption in public administration compared to 2016.

“In 2016, Nigeria scored 28 points and ranked 136th in the ranking of countries despite one-point reduction in the score, Nigeria has slipped in the country-ranking by 12 points in 2017.

“This shows that as the rest of the world has improved in the perception on corruption, Nigeria slips further down as the fight against corruption stagnates. ‘’

Anya said that on the African continent, Nigeria ranked 32nd out of 52 assessed countries in 2017. While Botswana led the continent as a corruption-free public administration, Nigeria fell with 27 points hopelessly behind.

He said that in West Africa, Nigeria ranked second worse out of 17 countries leaving only Guinea Bissau behind.

According to him, the fresh setback in the fight against corruption confirmed that grand-corruption, political corruption, nepotism, favoritism and bribery persist in Nigeria at all levels.

“It is CISLAC’s view that the negative perception is mainly a consequence of the inability to combat grand corruption and astronomical plundering of public coffers costing the Nigerian tax payers around 25 per cent of annual Gross Domestic Product (GDP).

“Since the present administration has come to power on the anti-corruption ticket, no significant politically exposed person has been duly sentenced on anti-corruption charges.

“CISLAC notes that anti-corruption agencies have accelerated the rate of convictions on anti-corruption charges, Economic Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC) for example in 2016/2017 brought 286 cases to conviction.

“However, the majority are rather insufficient cases with little impact of returned assets into the state budget and no effect on unfavorable public opinion. ‘’

Anya said that there was a reason to suspect that the judiciary was either not able or willing to prosecute the VIP cases of senior public servants and elected politicians.

According to him, these group of people have either directly plundered lucrative Nigerian state resources or are at least responsible for the catastrophic lack of oversight over public funds as mandated by the Constitution.

He said that the National Assembly had delayed the confirmation of 60 nominees for leadership of various institutions, including agencies vital to fight corruption.

“The failure to screen and confirm nominees from the executive is undermining governance and complicating the ongoing fight against corruption in the country.’’

He said that these failures contributed to the deterioration of the public patience and perception about the ability to fight corruption in Nigeria.

Anya added that unless the justice system expedites politically exposed cases and forfeits meaningful amounts of recovered assets and the shocking plundering of public resources, public perception on anti-corruption was unlikely to improve.

Ms Bathsheba Tagwai, Advocacy and Legal Adviser of CISLAC, said that the centre recommended that steps be taken to re-galvanise public engagement and secure cooperation of international community in the fight against corruption.

Tagwai urged the government to make the 2017 anti-corruption strategy public, assign responsibilities for its implementation and prepare a detailed and casted action plan monitored by civil CSOs.

She also advised that the government should prioritise anti-corruption courts and nominate judges with proven record of high integrity and no controversies.

She called on the government to also strengthen the functions of supreme audit institutions such as the Office of the Auditor-General and hold National Assembly accountable for an oversight or a lack of it.

She also called for the strengthening of anti-corruption institutions, adequate protection and encouragement for whistle-blowers, and intensify media and public consciousness in demanding transparency and accountability in governance.

Mr Vaclau Prusa, the Programme Manager, Anti-corruption CISLAC, said that the CPI was established in 1995 as a composite indicator used to measure perceptions of corruption in the public sector.

He said that this survey was conducted in Germany with inputs from nine organisations based on people’s perception on corruption, especially businessmen.