Abuja — Corruption has increased in Nigeria with the country currently ranking 130th out of 180 countries surveyed in the 2009 Corruption Perceptions Index (CPI) released by Transparency International (TI).
Last year Nigeria scored 2.7 points and took 121st position out of 180 countries but this year the country's CPI score dropped to 2.5 ranking at on the same position Lebanon, Libya and Mauritania.
CPI ranks countries in terms of the degree to which corruption is perceived to exist among public officials and politicians.
Nigeria's CPI index in the span of an eight year period dating back to 2001 did not improve until 2006 when it ranked 142nd out of 163 countries. Before then the country ranked second to last for four years consecutively with its lowest CPI ranking in 2001 at 1.0. The first three countries on this year's CPI index are New Zealand, Denmark and Singapore.
TI's representative in Nigeria Osita Nnamani Ogbu blamed the retrogression on the Federal Government having not demonstrated any political will to the fight against corruption.
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Ogbu who is the Secretary General of Transparency in Nigeria (TIN) said the government was paying lip-service to the fight against corruption and there was a reign of impunity in Nigeria which the Attorney General of the Federation (AGF) has called "the rule of law."
According to him some of the areas which the country under President Yar'adua has defaulted included the electoral system, judiciary, and poor implementation of anti-corruption laws.
On the issue of electoral accountability, he said the Federal Government's white paper on the report of the Uwais Electoral Reform Committee undermined the electoral reform process it set in motion.
"Firstly, there is absence of electoral accountability in Nigeria. Nobody has been punished for his or her role in the fundamentally flawed 2007 elections. The leadership of the Independent National Electoral Commission which conducted the flawed elections still remains in power. INEC has since then continued to conduct other flawed bye-elections," he said.
The Secretary General also noted that the case of alleged bribery of some Nigerian public officials by Halliburton, Wilbros and Siemens was another evidence of impunity in Nigeria.
He said while those who offered the bribes have been convicted in their countries nothing has happened to the Nigerian officials and the political party alleged to have received the bribe.
Other events which occurred during the Yar'adua administration that have weakened the government are the non-passage of the Freedom of Information (FOI) bill, the courts granting injunctions restraining anti-corruption agencies from either investigating or prosecuting suspects and the wage dichotomy between political office holders and public servants.
"The trials of the former Governors who were alleged to have siphoned billions of public funds have been reduced to a playboy affair. A special 'rule of law' has been contrived in their favour which may result in their escaping justice," he said.
He however credited the Federal Government for enacting some anti-corruption legislation like the Public Procurement Act 2007 and Fiscal Responsibility Act 2007.
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