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Grace Okon
Nigeria has been ranked 24th most corrupt country out of 100, based on 2022 Corruption perception index.
The ranking of the index assessment comes from 8 different sources that provide perceptions by country expert and business people on the level of corruption in the public sector.
Civil Society Legislative Advocacy Centre (CISLAC) in conjunction with Transparency International TI, has implored Government at every level of the nation to come together to eradicate corruption in the nation.
The Executive Director CISLAC Auwal Ibrahim Musa stated this during his remark at the corruption perception launched in Abuja.
While indicating that there has been no change compared to the 24 points in the 2021 CPI , he said all hands must be on deck to reduce corruption to the barest minimum.
In his words he said: ” we are deeply worried and concerned that inspite of the claim by our government to fight corruption, it still continued to be a major problem in Nigeria.We are not surprised because the issue of corruption has remained largely on the local, state and the federal ggovernment level.
All the three tiers of government such as the Executive, Legislative and the Judiciary are tagged by corruption”.
“All hand must be on deck and must all compliment one another to fight corruption, but as we all know why the executive made the pronouncement to fight corruption, the other tiers of government are simply not following the rules”,
The Country Director Accountability Lab, Friday Odeh, said one of the major set back in addressing corruption in Nigeria is pardoning of certain individuals by the current administration in 2022.
” This is damaging as it fails the equity and fairness test, as those pardoned were politically inclined individuals, yet poor citizens are jailed for similar crimes or even lesser offences.
“This dampened the confidence of citizens and also weaken the morale of anti-graft agencies who spent years, money and their official facing physical attacks during prosecution.
“In addition this send a negative message to the International community especially around sharing intelligence and cooperation on asset recovery and other related matters”, he added.
He further called on INEC to play its role in ensuring integrity in the conduct of political parties, as envisioned in the 1999 constitution and Act, while also hoping for the passage of the proceed Crime Act 2022 and the Money Laundering Act 2022 to help strengthen Nigeria’s legal framework, when its comes to prevention and combating money laundering and related crimes.
Bathasheba Tagwai, the Senior Legal officer in her recommendation called on the presidency, INEC, Political Parties, security actors and other relevant bodies to ensure that the 2023 general elections is free fair and credible.
She advised the presidency to ensure that adequate consultation is carried out with citizens, medias, civil society and other actors before presidential pardon is granted.
” We need logical conclusion on high profile corruption cases, and should be pursued by relevant anti-graft agency for the benefit of Nigeria and her citizens”, the legal practitioner added.
