The Executive Director of Civil Society Legislative Advocacy Centre, CISLAC, Auwal Rafsanjani has said that the fight against corruption in Nigeria must be holistic and collective.
He stated this at the release of the 2021 Corruption Perceptions Index, CPI, by Transparency International (IT).
According to Rafsanjani, the CISLAC the findings in the index were solely an assessment of the entire public sector and not performance measuring of Nigeria’s government, its agencies, or anti-graft agencies.
“We are not measuring the performances of the federal government, its agencies or any anti-graft agencies. It is solely a public sector assessment.
“We spend billions organizing elections in this country only to bring in crooks that perpetuate corruption in the country. The fight against corruption must be holistic and collective”.
Rafsanjani further revealed that CPI aggregates data from eight different sources that provide perceptions by country experts and business people on the level of corruption in the public sector.
These sources include; Bertelsmann Foundation Transformation Index, Economist Intelligent Unit Country Ratings, Global Insight Country Risk Ratings, PRS international Country Risk Guide, Varieties of Democracy Project, World Bank Country Policy and International Assessment (CPIA), World Economic Forum Executive Opinion Survey, World Justice Project Rule of Law Index.
“While the index does not show specific incidences of corruption in the country, it indicates the perception of corruption in Nigeria. The index is completely impartial, objective, and globally acknowledged as the most widely used cross-country parameter for measuring corruption”, he said.
According to the Index, Nigeria dropped five places scoring 24 out of 100 points in the 2021 index.
The rankings further revealed that Nigeria is placed 154 on the logout of 180 countries in the 2021 Corruption Perceptions Index compared to its 149 ranking in the 2020 index.
The CPI ranking revealed that Nigeria is the second most corrupt country in West Africa closely behind Guinea is ranked 150 on the global index.
