Nigeria -   10 Years of Transparency International Monitoring Perception of Nigeria 's Corruption

By Mobolaji E. Aluko, PhD
December 9, 2006

INTRODUCTION

Today, December 9, being International Anti-Corruption Day, it is appropriate to sit back and discuss the progress against corruption in Nigeria.

The immediate reflex of my readers will be to expect a full and dispassionate discussion of the impact of the two well-known bodies Economic and Financial Crimes Commission EFCC (under Mallam Nuhu Ribadu) and Independent Corrupt Practices Commission ICPC (under Justice Ayoola) on corruption,  corrupt practices and corrupt persons high and low in Nigeria.  I do not intend to do that, since that would be a multi-dimensional, hydra-headed problem which I am not immediately ready to tackle.  Rather I wish to analyze how Nigeria has been perceived in numerical terms from 1996 to 2006 as reported by the respected Transparency International, Inc., and what progress – or lack of it – has since been made.

The fulcrum of my discussion is therefore Table 1 below, with data taken from Transparency International TI's website.

ANALYZING THE DATA

The years 1996 – 2006 span two-and-half years of Abacha's military rule, one year of Abdusalami's military rule and the on-going seven-and-a-half years of civilian rule of Olusegun Obasanjo.   During that period, the number of countries surveyed by TI has increased more than three-fold, from 54 in 1996 to 163 in 2006.  During that same period, Nigeria's Corruption Perception Index CPI score has IMPROVED in absolute terms from a lowly 0.69 to still a piddly 2.2 (out of a maximum of 10) – climbing into the over-2 range for the first time in those ten years ONLY now in 2006. 

A sub-20% score in any examination cannot be good anywhere in the world! 

However, since the sub-indices that go into each composite index vary somewhat from year to year, the ratio of Nigeria's ABSOLUTE CPI to that of the maximum in each year has been calculated,   and that has shown a steadier decline from 13.67 in 1996 to 4.37 in 2006 even when the CPI itself has bounced around a bit.

Finally, our rank in the comity of nations in terms of corruption has often been the most reported in the international press, with the moniker "MOST CORRUPT" being generally attached to Nigeria. In fact, in those years, we have been UNIQUELY the "most corrupt" three times [1996, 1997 during Abacha's rule; and 2000 during the first year of Obasanjo's administration], also uniquely the second most corrupt four times [1999 during the split Abdusalami/Obasanjo year, 2001-2003 during the Obasanjo administration], third most corrupt two times [2004, 2005, both during the Obasanjo administration, with the latter year's position shared with Cote d'Ivoire and Equatorial Guinea], interestingly fourth most corrupt once during the split Abacha/Abdusalami administration [1998; position then shared with Tanzania], and currently, in 2006, the fifth most corrupt, beating out thirteen other countries and sharing that highest position so far with nine other countries.

The table shows that Bangladesh and Haiti are demonstrably the most consistently problematic in terms of corruption perception – and that is putting it mildly, especially with respect to Bangladesh which has been the most corrupt six times out of those ten years, all recent years [2001-2006].   Haiti was judged most corrupt three times also all in recent years [2004-2006].   On the hand, Finland, Denmark, New Zealand and Iceland consistently rank highest among TI's least corrupt countries.

Therefore, all in all, the table shows that NIGERIA has IMPROVED in terms of corruption perception.  Granted that the CPI number by itself may not mean much, one can only urge that IN COMPARISON WITH OTHER COUNTRIES,  and FROM YEAR TO YEAR, we must continue in this direction.

GALLUP 'S RECENT INAUGURAL 2006 CORRUPTION POLL

On December 5, 2006 – just a few days ago -  the also well-respected Gallup Polls organization reported its own inaugural Worldwide Corruption Index, apparently to rival TI's own index.  According to its own write up:

QUOTE

http://www.galluppoll.com /content/?ci=25612

The Gallup Corruption Index tracks the likelihood of populations around the globe to perceive widespread corruption in their government and businesses. Initial findings reveal that perceptions of corruption are prevalent in a majority of the 101 countries ranked. Index scores are significantly related to approval of leadership within a population, and to residents' likelihood to be satisfied with their personal freedom.

UNQUOTE

 It even has a video:  http://www.galluppoll.com /videoArchive/?ci=25705&pg=

Results were based on interviews with randomly selected national samplesof approximately 1,000 adults who are permanent residents in the 101 nations
surveyed in 2005 and 2006, and based on responses to two questions:.

Question 1:  Is corruption widespread throughout the government in your country?

Question 2:  Is corruption widespread within businesses located in your country

Finland (with a score of 12, with 100 being most corrupt) was the least corrupt country on the Gallup poll, followed by Denmark (21) tied New Zealand (21), Singapore (22), and Saudi Arabia (25).  See Table 2. On the other end of the scale, Lithuania (94) emerged as the country perceived to be most corrupt, followed by Poland (93) tied Lebanon (93), Thailand (91) and Cameroon (90).  The United Kingdom ranked 6^th, with a score of 36, while the United States had a score of 59, ranked 19^th on the least corruption scale, and tied with Tanzania and Chile.

Nigeria was no where in sight – well actually, we had a score of 83, and ranked 74 ^th out of 101 countries, and tied with Pakistan, Angola and Paraguay, meaning that we beat out twenty-four other countries. 

That, I believe, is also good news, and should encourage Nigeria along whatever path it is currently taking.  However, it is important to put into perspective the following caveat by a discussant in one of the many anti-corruption websites which I recently ran into, who stated as follows:

QUOTE

I've worked in something like 50 countries, and what is most interesting to me about these Gallup results is the difference between perception and reality in some of these countries. Gallup is ranking the people's perception of their government's corruption, as opposed to the corruption itself.

People in developed countries are more likely to make a bigger deal out of corruption, so if you look at Gallup 's chart, you'd think that Italy is more corrupt than Nigeria, which is patently ridiculous. Italy is outrageously corrupt for a sophisticated, developed nation (Transparency International rates it a 4.5/10 in transparency), but is nowhere near the level of Nigeria (2.2).) What is reasonable to conclude is that Italians are more bothered by their level of corruption than Nigerians are, and perhaps they should be, because their country is far more corrupt than other countries with similar economic and social development.

On the other side of the coin, Uzbekistan(which is extremely corrupt throughout every element of society) has somehow convinced its citizens that things are as they should be! Transparency International rates Uzbekistan (2.1) as the 9th most corrupt country in the world, but their citizens perceive it as being about equal to Canada , which is rated a sterling 8.5 by TI! 

UNQUOTE

This is very perceptive reasoning.  For example, Saudi Arabia, ranked 70^th least corrupt by TI jumps to 5^th least corrupt in the Gallup ranking.  However, while there is good correlation between TI and Gallup for the least corrupt countries (eight of TI's least corrupt are also part of Gallup's 10 least corrupt), there is almost no correlation at the other end of most corrupt.  Curiously, nine of the most corrupt in TI's list ( Haiti, Myanmar, Iraq , Guinea, Sudan, Democratic Republic of Congo, Chad, Equatorial Guinea, and Cote d'Ivoire ) are not surveyed or reported at all by Gallup, robbing us of the possibility of making some conclusions about this group.   Of the others surveyed (Belarus, Uzbekistan, Cambodia and Bangladesh), the worst in TI's ranking (Bangladesh, at rank 156 out of 163) turns up as 57^th out of 101 in Gallup's rankings!

This suggests an opportunity to propose another index: a Citizen Corruption Index (CCI), where we present (maybe) ten corruption scenarios in several countries, and see how many citizens consider a particular scenario Very Corrupt, Corrupt, Not Corrupt or No Opinion, and report a weighted sum of that alongside TI's CPI and Gallup's own WCI. 

PROLOGUE

In the light of recent adverse reports by the international news media (particularly CNN and ABC News) on corruption of Nigeria and Nigerians, and the recent launch of the "Nigeria – Heart of Africa" image Project by the government of Nigeria, one can use any cheery news that one can get on how the international perception of Nigeria's corruption has improved.

Let us take the news here and run with it – and determine to improve our image.

Happy Anti-Corruption Day!

BIBLIOGRAPHY

ALUKO ON CORRUPTION IN NIGERIA:

http://groups.yahoo.com/group /AlukoArchives/message/38 http://www.dawodu.com/aluko22 .htm
 http://www.dawodu.com/aluko102 .htm
http://www.dawodu.com/aluko103 .htm
http://www.dawodu.com/aluko117 .htm
http://www.dawodu.com/aluko132 .htm
http://www.nigeriavillagesquare 1.com/Articles/mobolaji_aluko /2000_02_01_archive.html

Nigeria 's Heart of Africa Project Page

http://www.heartofafrica.com

Robot  # 1 | 09.12.2006 17:00

Today, December 9, being International Anti-Corruption Day, it is appropriate to sit back and dis...Read the full article.