Although the country maintained its previous year’s (2021) score of 24 out of 100 points, however, there was a change in rank from 154 to 150, as some other countries performed more poorly in 2022.

This was as the Independent Corrupt Practices and Other Related Offences Commission noted that it was not in a position to react to or make a comment on the score and ranking.

The spokesperson for the anti-graft agency, Mrs Azuka Ogugua, said, “The Federal Government had always reacted to the report annually, and it is expected that it would react to the latest one. However, the ICPC is not in the position to react to or make a comment on the report.”

However, the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission did not respond to an inquiry by our correspondent on Tuesday, concerning what the CPI means for its anti-corruption fight in the country.

The EFCC spokesperson, Wilson Uwujaren, did not respond to phone calls, texts, or WhatsApp messages from our correspondent on Tuesday.

The CPI is TI’s tool for measuring the levels of corruption in the systems of 180 countries across the world, based on prevalent indices.

Such prevalent indices are bribery, diversion of public funds, public officials using public office for private gain without consequences, the ability of governments to contain corruption and enforce effective integrity mechanisms in the public sector, red tape and excessive bureaucratic burden which may increase opportunities for corruption, meritocratic versus nepotistic appointments in the civil service.

For Nigeria, the CPI sourced its data for the ranking from eight globally acclaimed organisations, some of which Nigeria is a partner.

The eight organisations are the World Bank Country Policy and Institutional Assessment, World Economic Forum Executive Opinion Survey, Works Justice Project Rule of Law Index, Varieties of Democracy Project, Global Insight Country Risk Guide, PRS International Country Risk Guide, Economist Intelligence Unit Country Ratings, and the Bertelsmann Foundation Transformation Index.

In previous years, Nigeria had experienced a consecutive drop in the CPI ranking. In 2012, the country scored 27, and in 2013 it scored 25, then went back to 27 in 2014, and down to 26 in 2015, moved up to 28 in 2016, 27 in 2017 and 2018, 26 in 2019, down to 25 in 2020, and 24 in 2021 and 2022.

According to Transparency International Chair, Delia Rubio, global corruption levels have been stagnant for 11 years in a row.

Rubio said, “Corruption has made our world a more dangerous place. As governments have collectively failed to make progress against it, they fuel the current rise in violence and conflict – and endanger people everywhere. The only way out is for states to do the hard work, rooting out corruption at all levels to ensure governments work for all people, not just an elite few.”

At a press conference on Tuesday, the Civil Society Legislative Advocacy Centre in conjunction with TI noted that the pardon granted to two jailed former governors – Joshua Dariye of Plateau State and Jolly Nyame of Taraba State in 2022 by the Buhari-led administration, indicated a major setback in the country’s anti-corruption efforts.

He said this as a reaction to Transparency International’s recent report which ranked Nigeria 146 out of 180 corrupt countries, with a total of 26 points out of a possible 100 points, adding that they are already winning the fight.

He said “In any event, we are not fighting corruption because we want to impress any organisation. We are fighting corruption because we believed that without fighting the menace, the much-sought development will not happen and we have results to show for fighting corruption.  We have put in place policies and legislation that have tamed the monster called corruption. For instance, apart from the TSA which has saved us billions of Naira, we put in place transparency portal which enables every Nigerians to see how much is being spent by the government every day. Under the transparency portal regulation, any expenditure above N5 billion must be reported and that gives every Nigerian the opportunity to know exactly what is going on. We will continue to fight corruption and we know that we are winning the war.”