Nigeria has sunk by five places in its latest Transparency International corruption rating under the President Muhammadu Buhari government.
The Transparency International (TI) 2021 corruption perception index published on Tuesday January 25, shows that the corruption rot is deepening in Nigeria.
In 2020, Nigeria scored 25 out of 100 points and ranked 149 out of the 180 countries surveyed. However, in 2021, the country scored 24 out of 100 points and ranked 154 out of 180 countries.
Analysts said the new ranking is the worst under the Buhari administration. In 2015, Nigeria was ranked 136th; 136th in 2016; 148th in 2017; 144th in 2018; 146th in 2019, and 149th in 2020.
According to the Civil Society Legislative Advocacy Centre (CISLAC), the national chapter of Transparency International (TI), the CPI aggregates data from eight different sources that provide perceptions by experts and business people on the level of corruption in the public sector.
It listed seven weaknesses observed in Nigeria;
- Damning audit report.
- Security sector corruption.
- Failure to investigate high profile corruption cases and prevent 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.
- Twitter ban, shrinking civic space and intimidation of human rights defenders.
The report also noted that the index does not show specific incidents of corruption in the country but the perception of corruption.