The 2023 Transparency International (TI) Report of the global Corruption Perception Index (CPI) clearly indicates that corruption is still rife in Nigeria. According to the report though, on a scale of 100, Nigeria improved marginally in the CPI score from 24 points in 2022, to 25 points in 2023. Although the one-point improvement over the period may need to be acknowledged, this does not appear salutary at all.
Out of 180 countries surveyed, Nigeria was ranked 145 and thus very much in the company of countries with very high incidence of corruption in their national life. Sadly, and quite instructively, Nigeria’s score of 25 points is even far below the sub Saharan African average score of 33 points, clearly indicating that even by African standards, Nigeria is a country laden with high levels of corrupt practices. And this cuts across virtually every sphere of national life.
The Report further stated that in the past 10 years, beginning from 2014, which covers the entire period of the Muhammadu Buhari administration, Nigeria’s CPI scores have hovered between 24 points and 28 points which do not indicate significant progress in the fight against corruption. The peak of 28 points was attained in 2016 during the early years of the Buhari administration when the euphoria of the fight against corruption was at its ascendancy. After then, the CPI score for Nigeria had since taken a decline, indicating that the fight against corruption under President Buhari was a fluke. This is indeed sad.
While there may be the need to acknowledge and possibly celebrate the little win, given the slight increase of Nigeria’s CPI score from 24 to 25 points over the 2022-2023 period, it is appropriate to identify the areas from where this little win came from. The details in the Transparency International Report identified three factors that contributed to putting some pressure on the system leading to slight reduction of the incidence of corruption over the period.
First, the launch of the Beneficial Ownership Register in May last year which identified and kept a record of persons with significant interest in companies with proper liaison with the Corporate Affairs Commission had some effect. This enhanced the close monitoring of interferences in say, the public procurement process, among others. The other contributory factor is the activity of the media, civil society and the citizenry which from time to time constructively engaged the authorities on the need to address the corruption issue. Third, is the periodic arrests and recoveries made by anti-corruption agencies of the government. All these contributed to one form or the other in the little gain experienced.
This clearly shows that with all hands on deck, the incidence of corruption in Nigeria can be reduced. The role of the citizenry and the media is very critical in salvaging the Nigerian society from this cancer of corruption. Many newspapers on their own have not relented in frequently crying out on the need to save the next generation from this disease. The need to restructure the governance structure, to devolve powers to the sub-national governments have been one of the issues being raised by the media as one of the areas to reduce the incidence of corruption by ensuring that too much power is not domiciled at the central government which is a pure breeding ground for corruption.
As the saying goes, “power corrupts, and absolute power corrupts absolutely”. The other issue that the citizenry can leverage on in this fight against corruption is the full utilisation of the government whistle blowing policy which helps to nip the incidence of corruption in the bud as well as enhance the “name and shame” strategy which have their value addition in this regard. The recommendations in the Transparency International Report are worth taking seriously by the government and the entire Nigerian society if the fight against corruption will be frontally executed to save the next generation from an imminent ruin.
While the small wins are to be appreciated, there are various other issues that need to be addressed, going forward. As articulated in the Transparency International Report, these include unchecked electoral corruption, judicial corruption, corruption in the security sector, opaqueness of public institutions such as the Nigerian National Petroleum Company Limited and others, incidence of rewarding corrupt and questionable individuals with public appointments, wasteful expenditures in government and failure to prosecute high profile cases expeditiously, among others.
Indeed, the fight against corruption in Nigeria is far from being over. The key issue is to learn from the experience of countries that have brought the incidence of corruption to a very bearable level. These include countries such as Singapore and other Asian countries that have been able to transit from a “third world” to a “first world” status. Nigeria needs a benevolent and firm leadership given that, as the saying goes, “the fish starts to get rotten from the head”. Once the citizenry perceives elements of sincerity in the leadership, the effect will simmer down to the grassroots and the results will be more than the one point marginal progress recorded between 2022 and 2023. Nigerians now hardly trust the integrity of the electoral process. They equally do not trust the integrity of the judiciary as clearly articulated in the Transparency International Corruption Perception Index Report. Nigeria must address this issue of culture of impunity, and this drive must start from the top. Except the fight against corruption is taken more seriously, Nigeria will just be gravitating to a nation state where corruption becomes the order of the day. The 2023 Transparency International Corruption Perception Index Report should be taken as a wake-up call in this regard.
