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Nigeria ranks 149 out of 180 countries on transparency, worst since 2015

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A report released Thursday by Transparency International has ranked Nigeria at 149 out of 180 countries on transparency, its worst performance since President Muhammadu Buhari came to power in 2015.

The 2020 Transparency International corruption perception index showed that Nigeria scored 25 out of 100 point.

In the 2019 report by TI, Nigeria ranked 146th out of the 180 countries surveyed, scoring 26 points out of a possible 100, while in the 2018 report, the largest country in Africa ranked 144 out of 180, pointing to the fact that corruption has worsened in the country.

Also, from the latest ranking, Nigeria came out as the second most corrupt country in West Africa, coming just before Guinea-Bissau, the most corrupt in the all-region, according to the TI report.

Also in Africa, Nigeria had 12 countries the report ranked to be more corrupt than Nigeria. They are Zimbabwe, Chad, Eritrea, Burundi, Congo, Guinea Bissau, Democratic Republic of Congo, Libya, Equatorial Guinea, Sudan, Somalia and South Sudan.

Somalia and South Sudan ranked as the most corrupt nations on earth.

Read also: Transparency International charges NASS to reject future loan requests from Buhari

On the other hand, the TI report ranked Denmark, New Zealand, Finland, Singapore, Sweden Switzerland, Norway, The Netherlands, Germany and Luxembourg as the least corrupt countries in the world, while
the United Kingdom, Canada and Hong Kong were all ranked at 11, with the United States ranked at 25, its lowest ever ranking.

The report read in part: “Finally, the unique challenges wrought by the COVID-19 pandemic have tested high-scoring countries’ commitment to transparency and integrity in their own public sectors as never before.

“When the Organised Crime and Corruption Reporting Project created a database of how public money was spent on Personal Protective Equipment at the onset of the COVID-19 pandemic, in several countries they found a black box. Belgium (76/100), Denmark, the Netherlands and Norway did not publish details of contracts awarded, even withholding information on prices and the names of companies in some cases.

“In the US, the previous administration’s challenges to oversight of the unprecedented COVID-19 relief package raised serious anti-corruption concerns and marked a significant retreat from longstanding democratic norms promoting accountable government.

“Now, as we look hopefully ahead to 2021 as a year of widespread vaccinations and treatments, it is vital that there is transparency and accountability in how governments, especially in wealthy nations, acquire and distribute life-saving resources.”

The latest ranking by Transparency International comes as a dent on the much promoted anti-corruption posture of the President Muhammadu Buhari administration, a posture that has been the administration’s major rallying point over the years.

Ripples Nigeria had reported on Wednesday that respected Nobel Laureate, Professor Wole Soyinka took a dig at the Buhari administration, insisting that it has lost steam in its anti-corruption drive.

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