Nigeria, yesterday, moved to 144th from 148th in Transparency International (TI) latest Corruption Perception Index (CPI) worldwide, that also saw the United States dropping four notches out of the top 20 countries in the world.
However, Nigeria made the four notch jump without improving its score of 27 out of a possible 100 as recorded in 2017.
Africa’s most populous country tied with Kenya, Comoros, Guatemala and Mauritania. Nigeria ranked better than Cameroon put at 152nd.
Botswana remains Africa’s most transparent country with a ranking of 34, followed by Namibia, Mauritius and Senegal.
The United States slid to 22nd in the world from 18th last year, dropping out of the top 20 countries for the first time since 2011, Transparency International said in a report that cited growing threats to democracy worldwide.
The group said its latest report on business leaders’ perceptions of corruption put the United States at 71, down from 75, on a scale of 0-100.
That sounds a “wake-up call” about the need to tackle conflicts of interest, undue influence of the private sector and widening gaps between rich and poor, the watchdog’s acting representative to the United States, Zoe Reiter, said.
“This is a red flag because it’s really part of a pattern that we’ve seen since the 2008 global financial crisis of a loss of trust … in our public institutions,” she said.
“People don’t see us as having adequate mechanisms in place to fight corruption and ensure the accountability of our elected officials,” she added.
The group said only 20 countries had significantly improved their scores since 2012, including Argentina and Ivory Coast.
“Corruption is much more likely to flourish where democratic foundations are weak and…where undemocratic and populist politicians can use it to their advantage,” Chair of the Global Civil Society Group, Delia Ferreira Rubio, said.