. Agencies defiant on TI assessment
Emmanuel Addeh in Abuja
Nigeria’s anti-corruption agencies under the Technical Unit on Governance and Anti-corruption Reforms (TUGAR), have completed an assessment of the ‘Facts Behind the Corruption Perception Index’, of the Transparency International (TI), concluding that despite the not so favourable assessment, the country’s anti-graft war remains on course.
The agencies made the remarks at the public presentation of the report of the review of six years (2019–2024) of the TI Corruption Perception Index (TI- CPI) on Nigeria aimed at enhancing transparency and accountability and improving Nigeria’s ranking on the index.
TUGAR is a research, monitoring and evaluation unit set up to respond to the need for a rigorous approach to policy making grounded in empirical data collection and analysis, in Nigeria. This year, Nigeria was ranked 140 out of 180 countries by TI.
At the public presentation of the data in Abuja yesterday, various participants, including the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC), the Independent Corrupt Practices Commission (ICPC), Corporate Affairs Commission (CAC), Police, among others, agreed that there were serious ongoing efforts to raise the country’s anti-corruption profile.
Speaking at the event, the Chairman of the EFCC, Ola Olukoyede, stated that recent recoveries, especially of an unprecedented 700-flat estate in Abuja should draw favourable global attention to the country.
“For us as Nigerians, we must be more interested in adding value to our economic and social lives than getting destroyed by any kind of narrative. If we don’t appreciate that, it will be a major problem for us. Whatever we are going to do, the priority should be to improve on our processes, to add value to our lives as Nigerians.
“Now, if we do the right thing, the international community will come here and copy what we are doing and borrow it from us. I can surely say the fact that in the last one year, the various stakeholders, the anti-corruption department, including the legislature, including the executive and the judiciary, have made some tangible progress in our fight against corruption.
“Of course, you are all aware of the Supreme Court judgment on the financial autonomy of the local governments. That is a great relief. The international community does not acknowledge that. We have to acknowledge that by ourselves.
“ It is a key development and advancement in the course of fighting corruption.We have been having a series of legislative interventions that has made this fight easy for us to execute,” he stated.
While acknowledging the intervention of the legislature this year in increasing the allocations of most anti-corruption agencies in Nigeria, he stated that TI may not capture that, explaining that Nigeria must let the world know it’s making progress.
“I am not sure there is anywhere in the world where it has recorded a single real estate recovery like we did last year in the EFCC, over 700 apartments of various sizes in one single recovery.
“Not in the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI), not anywhere, not even in America.That is a great relief. The major work that EFCC is doing is monitoring constituency projects, as large as Nigeria. We arrested over 790 suspects, including 194 foreigners, including those of some of the countries that have higher ranking than us in the TI rating,” he added.
Also speaking, ICPC Chairman, Dr Musa Aliyu, represented by the Secretary, Clifford Oparaodu, lauded the efforts of various anti-corruption agencies and their personnel that are articulating viable strategies to combat corruption and change citizens’ orientation.
“ This report, in our view, is a crucial milestone in our collective efforts as an anti-corruption agency to objectively review the assessment of Nigeria through the lens of TI. What is really important is what we perceive to have done so far in the development of our country. We have to judge ourselves. We cannot allow others to judge us,” Aliyu said.
In her remarks, Head of TUGAR, Jane Onwumere, said that over the years, there had been divergent views as to whether the CPI assesses the effectiveness of government activities in the fight against corruption.
Therefore, in 2020, she said that TUGAR commissioned an analysis of the index to unpack the data sources of the CPI, including the methodology of the research and indicators used.
“It is our hope that this knowledge would provide a better understanding of the Corruption Perception Index and help to identify elements of the assessment that may provide opportunity for remedial action and support implementation of the National Anti-Corruption Strategy 2022 – 2026.
“It is also our expectation this report would create awareness and prepare the anti-corruption community and relevant stakeholders for better and stronger engagement with the TI -CPI annual reports,” Onwumere stated.
The Inspector General of Police, Kayode Egbetokun, who was represented by an Assistant Inspector General, Okon Efiong, explained that although corruption is a global phenomenon, it remains one of the greatest threats to the sustenance of the democratic governments all over the world.
Executive Secretary of the Nigeria Extractive Industries Transparency Initiative (NEITI), Dr Ogbonnaya Orji, in his goodwill message, noted that while the marginal progress in TI rating was encouraging, it was a reminder that much work remains to be done.
