Nigeria rated six of most corrupt countries

[Richard Akindele]

Though it might seem that the anti-corruption efforts are yielding fruits, Nigeria still falls in the top ten rank of the most corrupt countries in the world by transparency international(IT).

Nigeria only managed to slightly improve from top three to top six according to the latest ranking released by Transparent International (TI).


According to the report, Chad was considered the most corrupt country, followed by Bangladesh while the least corrupt country was Iceland.


Nigeria was, during the previous ranking, the third most corrupt country, but the latest ranking disclosed that Nigeria had improved marginally, ranking sixth. In Africa, South Africa and Seychelles are the least corrupt countries while Botswana and Ghana also improved on their previous ratings.


Other countries that have improved in their ratings are Argentina, Austria, Bolivia, Estonia, France, Guatemala, Honduras, Hong Kong, Japan, Jordan, Kazakhstan, Lebanon, Moldova, Qatar, Slovakia, South Korea, Taiwan, Turkey and Yemen.


The survey index defines corruption as the abuse of public office for private gain, and measures the degree to which corruption is perceived to exist amongst a country’s public officials and politicians. The survey included only 159 countries due to the absence of reliable data from the outstanding countries.


The survey index uses the scores ranging from ten (squeaky clean) to zero (highly corrupt) and a score of 5.0 is considered to be the borderline figure that distinguishes countries that do and do not have a serious corruption problem.


TI pointed out that, while poor countries are the greatest victims of corruption, the index showed that wealth does not buy integrity, as the recent and past corporate scandals in wealthy countries prove that. It also shows that public and government authorities are becoming increasingly sensitised to the issue of corruption.


Last year TI’s Corruption Perceptions Index ranked South Africa number 46, and Botswana, 32. Zimbabwe and Zambia were jointly ranked 107, Namibia 47, Lesotho 70, and Mozambique 97. Nigeria was ranked the second worst on the continent with a 152 score.


TI’s chairman, Peter Eigen, said what was needed in all countries, wealthy and poor, was the coalition between the government, private sector and civil society, to ensure a balance of power and representation of interests.

Source: Businessday online