Good news: Nigeria has moved up four places in the Transparency International corruption perception index (CPI) for 2018, according to the latest report unveiled on Tuesday morning.
The country is ranked 144 out of the 180 countries that were surveyed last year — an upward movement of four places compared to 148/180 in 2017.
Nigeria’s score, however, remained the same for the two years at 28/100.
In 2016, the country had scored 27/100 and was ranked 136th but dropped to 148/180 in 2017 despite a higher score of 28/100.
In a statement released along with the 2018 report on Tuesday morning, Patricia Moreira, managing director of Transparency International, emphasised the need “to do more to strengthen checks and balances and protect citizens’ rights” with many democratic institutions “under threat across the globe”.
“Corruption chips away at democracy to produce a vicious cycle, where corruption undermines democratic institutions and, in turn, weak institutions are less able to control corruption,” she added.
The index, which ranks 180 countries and territories by their perceived levels of public sector corruption in the opinion of experts and business people, uses a scale of 0 to 100, where 0 is highly corrupt and 100 is very clean, according to TI.
President Muhammadu Buhari, who came to power on the strength of his anti-corruption credential in 2015, is facing another election next month.
The administration has arrested many politicians and government officials and seized their assets, but it has also been accused of protecting members of the ruling party. (The Cable)
