CISLAC, TI National Contact Frets over Nigeria’s Fight against Corruption
Urges govt to make 2017 anti-corruption strategy public
The Civil Society Legislative Advocacy Centre (CISLAC), the National Contact of Transparency International (TI) has expressed worry over the new, unfavourable trend in the fight against corruption in the country.
This stance was buttressed in the newly published Corruption Perception Index (CPI) 2017 which shows that Nigeria is slipping further down in the international ranking on the fight against corruption, according to a release issued recently by the non-governmental organisation.
To repair the situation, the Federal Government was urged to make the 2017 anti-corruption strategy public, assign responsibilities for its implementation, and prepare a detailed action plan monitored by civil society organisations. Government was also enjoined to prioritise anti-corruption courts and nominate judges with proven record of high integrity and no controversies.
In the update of the CPI, Nigeria was ranked 148 out of 180 countries assessed in 2017 on the perception of the state of the corruption in the country. Out of 100 points signaling maximum transparency and no corruption, Nigeria scored 27 points. 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 the 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.
On the African continent, Nigeria ranks 32nd in Africa out of 52 assessed countries in 2017, and Botswana leads the continent with the record of competent and largely corruption-free public administration. In West Africa, Nigeria ranks 16th out of 17 countries, leaving only Guinea Bissau behind.
The CPI is one of the most respected inter- national measurements of corruption trends. It was established in 1995 as a composite indicator used to measure perceptions of corruption in the public sector in different countries around the world.
It draws upon a number of available sources which capture perceptions of corruption. CPI is computed by the Transparency International Secretariat in Germany and is published in Nigeria exclusively by CISLAC, a Transparency International chapter in Nigeria, which is headed by Mr. Auwal Musa Ibrahim (Rafsanjani).
According to CISLAC “this fresh setback in the fight against corruption confirms that grand corruption, political corruption, nepotism, favouritism 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 GDP.
“Since the current 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 Crime Commission (EFCC) for example has in 2016/17 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.
“There is a reason to suspect that judiciary is either not able or willing to prosecute the VIP cases of senior public servants and elected politicians who 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.