Nigeria has been ranked five places down on the 2021 Corruption Perception Index (CPI) as published by Transparency International (TI).
The result was made public via a tweet on Tuesday, January 26.
“The 2021 Corruption Perceptions Index released by Transparency International today shows corruption is on the increase in Nigeria,” Transparency International tweeted.
Also, Transparency International explained that Nigeria hit a historic low on the 2021 CPI.
“More than 100 powerful individuals were exposed as having used anonymous companies to buy properties with a total worth of £350 million in the United Kingdom alone.
Secretive dealings among Nigeria’s powerholders were previously reported as part of the Panama papers and FinCEN Files,” TI said on its website.
Meanwhile, the Nigerian arm of Transparency International, Civil Society Legislative Advocacy Centre, CISLAC, explained that the CPI aggregated data from eight different sources that provide perceptions by experts and business people on the level of corruption in the public sector.
Executive Director, CISLAC, Auwal Ibrahim Rafsanjani, who disclosed this at a briefing in Abuja yesterday, said, the data used for the CPI was not collected by CISLAC/TI-Nigeria or any of their partners, but by independent and reputable organizations with sound methodologies.
“It is important to stress that this is not an assessment of Nigeria’s anti-graft agencies who are making commendable efforts in reducing (in the fight against) corruption in Nigeria despite the political interference they face. Rather, the CPI goes beyond the anti-graft agencies,’’ he said.
The CPI is TI’s tool for measuring the levels of corruption in the systems of various countries around the world.
The organization listed seven weaknesses that impede Nigeria’s fight against corruption while calling for an immediate improvement for the sake of ordinary Nigerians.
The seven weaknesses include the damning audit report; security sector corruption; failure to investigate high profile corruption cases; illicit financial flows (IFFs); absence of asset recovery, protection of whistle-blowers, and other key anti-corruption legal frameworks; judicial challenges; corruption in the COVID-19 response and Twitter ban, shrinking civic space and intimidation of human rights defenders.
