2021 CPI: Is Nigeria losing the war against corruption?

 

On Tuesday, January 25, 2022, Transparency International via the Civil Society Legislative Advocacy Centre released the 2021 Corruption Perception Index. The survey shows that Nigeria scored 24 out of 100 points in the 2021 CPI, falling back one point compared to the 2020 CPI. This made Nigeria the second most corrupt country in West Africa, after Guinea. In the country comparison for the year, Nigeria ranks 154 out of 180 countries—five places down compared to the 2020 CPI results. The country’s score had dropped from 26 in 2019 to 25 in the 2020 assessment and further to 24 in the latest 2021 record. It is indeed not heartwarming news for Nigeria’s anti-corruption agencies and indeed the Federal Government whose mantra and cardinal objective is to combat corruption.

Should we believe Transparency International’s CPI on Nigeria given the great job being done by frontline anti-graft agencies such as the Independent Corrupt Practices and Other Related Offences Commission, and the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission? For instance, EFCC on Thursday, January 6, 2022, reported that it secured a total of 2,220 convictions across all its commands in 2021. This, it said, is the highest conviction secured by the anti-graft agency since inception, a 127.5 per cent improvement from the 1,280 convictions recorded by the agency in 2019. The EFCC, in its statement, said “interestingly too, the 2,220 record represents a 98.49 per cent success rate in prosecution as the commission lost only 34 cases during this period.”

The TI’s response to this is that CPI is not an assessment of Nigeria’s anti-graft agencies, who are making commendable efforts in reducing corruption in Nigeria despite the political interference they face, rather the CPI goes beyond the anti-graft agencies.

Reacting to the latest rating, the chairman of ICPC, Prof. Bolaji Owasanoye, said the nation should question TI’s assessment parameters, which gave Western countries receiving illicit financial flows a clean bill while thumbing down countries that were victims of graft. Speaking at a two-day training workshop for journalists organised by the ICPC at the Anti-Corruption Academy of Nigeria, Keffi, Nasarawa State, Owasanoye observed that the data sources on which the ranking was based did not take into cognisance the advances against graft recorded by Nigeria.

On my television show, Development Focus with Jide Ojo on Independent Television, Abuja last Wednesday, January 26, 2022, I hosted the Programme Specialist on anti-corruption with CISLAC which also hosts the Transparency International office in Nigeria, Samuel Asimi. He was on hand to break down why Nigeria continues to perform poorly in CPI rating despite the strenuous efforts of the Federal Government in using institutions, technology, law, policy, litigation and awareness creation to fight corruption in the country. I also requested and got the full report on the 2021 CPI index on Nigeria.

It is important to highlight some of my findings in the report on Nigeria. The European Commission Joint Research Centre reportedly undertook an independent audit of the CPI 2017 and its methodology. The same audit was conducted in 2012 following the introduction of a new methodology for the CPI calculation. Both audits found that the CPI is conceptually and statistically coherent and has a balanced structure. Data sources to arrive at the CPI on Nigeria in 2021 were from the following eight sources: Bertelsmann Foundation Transformation Index, Economist Intelligence Unit Country Ratings, Global Insight Country Risk Ratings, PRS International Country Risk Guide and Varieties of Democracy Project. Others include World Bank Country Policy and Institutional Assessment, World Economic Forum Executive Opinion Survey and World Justice Project Rule of Law Index.

CPI source data capture the following aspects of corruption: Bribery, diversion of public funds, prevalence of officials using public office for private gain without facing consequences, inability of government to contain corruption and enforce effective integrity mechanisms in the public sector, red tape and excessive bureaucratic burden, which may increase opportunities for corruption, as well as nepotistic appointments in the civil service. In all sincerity, a dispassionate look at these variables will convince any doubting Thomas that the phenomenon of corruption has been growing from bad to worse in Nigeria. This is most manifested in the magnitude of retail or petty corruption on display in the country. It is important to understand that when we talk about corruption, it’s not just about money. According to Transparency International, “corruption is the abuse of entrusted power for private gain.” Thus, sex-for-employment, sex-for-admission, sex-for-marks, sex-for-food, even exchanges of food or drinks for favours are all part of corrupt practices.

In justifying its 2021 rating of Nigeria, TI highlighted seven inherent weaknesses that led it to that conclusion. They are damning audit reports, especially the “Non-Compliance/Internal Control Weakness Issues in Ministries, Departments and Agencies” report for 2019 published by the Office of the Auditor General of the Federation in November 2021. The level of financial recklessness, abuse of budgetary processes and failure of MDAs in following the due process of appropriation are disturbing and have left Nigerians in awe. For example, the Auditor General revealed that the sum of N49bn was spent by nine MDAs without appropriation by the National Assembly. This is in gross violation of section 80 (4) of the 1999 Constitution, as amended. Readers will recall that I dealt extensively with this issue in my August 25, 2021 column in this newspaper.

Security Sector Corruption, a case in point being the systemic corruption in the Nigeria Police Force. This weakness puts the country in a bad light. As a matter of fact, the police was indicted by the Auditor General’s report on the “Non-Compliance/Internal Control Weaknesses in the MDAs” published in November 2021. Nigerians are still struggling to understand how 178,459 arms and ammunition were missing from the armoury of the Nigeria Police without a trace. Of this figure, 88, 078 were AK 47 assault rifles and 3,907 assorted rifles and pistols. Again, I weighed in on this issue on this page in my January 12, 2022 column.

Other identified weaknesses include failure to investigate high profile corruption cases and prevent illicit financial flows; absence of asset recovery, protection of whistle-blowers and other key anti-corruption legal frameworks (For further reading on this, see my December 8, 2021 column in this newspaper: Judicial Challenges: Corruption in the COVID-19 response) and, lastly, the Twitter ban, shrinking civic space and intimidation of human rights defenders.

I fully endorse the way forward enunciated by Transparency International for Nigeria to record significant progress in the fight against corruption. These include the relevant anti-graft agencies should investigate allegations of corruption by Politically Exposed Persons irrespective of political party affiliation. The Central Bank of Nigeria, anti-graft agencies, ministries of Justice and Foreign Affairs should work in synergy and engage their international counterparts to ensure that global enablers/middlemen like lawyers, notaries, accountants—who help facilitate money laundering and tax evasion—are blacklisted, deregistered or held to account under the several national laws, policies and international frameworks to which Nigeria is a signatory.

The Nigeria Police Force should urgently investigate the unexplained disappearance of arms and ammunition with a view to close the gaps. The Nigeria Police should strengthen its existing complaints channels by reinforcing the Complaints Response Unit to handle and investigate complaints of misconduct by police officers across the country as provided for in the Police Act 2020; the government must ensure democratic and free civic space for engagement with the citizenry and the media. The decline in freedom of expression and lack of respect for human rights should be stopped. There is also a need to operationalise the anti-corruption strategy to ensure that anti-corruption efforts are not concentrated at the federal level alone just as other arms of government need to be involved in the fight against corruption. Need I say more?