…Says preventive reforms involving all relevant stakeholders more effective
Following Nigeria’s drop in latest ranking on Corruption Performance Index (CPI) released yesterday by Transparency International (TI), the Convention on Business Integrity (CBI) has urged the federal government to adopt the model used by the Maritime Anti-corruption Network (MACN) in collaboration with the Nigeria Shippers Council (NSC), the Independent Corrupt and Other Related Practices Commission (ICPC) and Technical
Unit on Anti-Corruption Reforms (TUGAR) and other port agencies through the instrumentality of the Port Service Support Portal (PSSP) housed by the NSC and the Project Steering Committee (PSC), the Nigerian Port Process Manual (NPPM) which led to the formation of the Port Standing Task Team (PSTT) in tackling the menace of corruption in the country.
In a statement issued in Lagos on Tuesday by Integrity Organization, the Integrity Organization observed that while modest and incremental reforms were beginning to gain roots in the maritime sector where MACN and its collaborators hold sway, such collective action initiative was not replicated in other sectors even as it insisted that such a model was recommended for anti-corruption reforms in the country.
It went on to submit that for anti-corruption efforts to be effective and bear results, preventive reforms involving all relevant stakeholders had shown itself to be more effective in the medium and long term.
“This we strongly recommend to the Nigerian Government”, the body said.
The body recalled that on 25th January, 2022, Transparency International (TI), a global movement working in over 100 countries to end the injustice of corruption released its Corruption Perception Index (CPI) report for the year 2021.
It explained that the CPI measured the perceived levels of public sector corruption.
According to CBI, in the statement accompanying the report, TI acknowledged that “corruption levels are at a worldwide standstill” and that “31 countries have made no significant progress against corruption in the last decade. Two-thirds of countries score below 50, indicating that they have serious corruption problems while 27 countries are at their lowest score ever.”
It pointed out that of the poor performing countries, Nigeria featured prominently scoring 24 out of a possible 100 points and ranking an abysmal 154 out of the 180 countries ranked, a score that had been described as an historic low.
“While countries like Kenya which was in the same bracket score with Nigeria in 2016 have progressively improved in its CPI index ranking, Nigeria has progressively declined. While Kenya
scored 26 points in 2016, it has currently moved up to 30 points in 2021. Nigeria on the other
hand has moved from 28 points in 2016 to 24 in 2021.
“Compared to Ghana that has remained relatively stable at 43 points, Nigeria has continued to lag behind on the CPI and found company among countries such as Myanmar, Lebanon, Kyrgyzstan and Guatemala.
“Despite the usual claim by Nigerian Government officials that the government is making big
stride in its efforts at curtailing corruption, the failure of the government to take actions on
government officials indicted in grand corruption such as exposed in the Niger Delta Development Commission (NDDC) forensic audit as well as other revelations such as the Panama
Papers, Pandora Papers and FinCEN Files reveals a lack of political will to comprehensively tackle corruption at its very roots.
“The culture of impunity that has emerged as a result of the failure of successive government to frontally tackle the scourge of corruption in Nigeria has continued to fuel the negative perception of Nigeria as an endemically corrupt country and this perception is what is revealed in the CPI ranking of Nigeria.
“Also true to TI’s assertion that ‘corruption levels are at a worldwide standstill’, Nigeria’s class
of low performers in the CPI remains largely unchanged dispelling any notion of being singled out as agents of the Nigerian government will have the world believe”, it said.
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