… Ranks 149 out of 180 countries
The global corruption tracking organisation, Transparency International (TI), on Thursday, released its 2020 annual report, in which it scored Nigeria very low, thereby casting aspersions on the relentless efforts of President Muhammadu Buhari’s administration to curtail the scourge of corruption and its ripple effects.
The latest TI’s Corruption Perception Index (CPI) claims Nigeria scored 25/100, which is one point less than its 26 points in the previous year.
It pegged Nigeria at 149 out of 180 countries, a record that is three steps lower than its rank of 146 in 2019.
However, observers point out that they could hardly make any sense out of TI reports on Nigeria except that it has become a tool in the hands of some disgruntled elites who have made it a pastime to distract President Buhari from concentrating on the arduous task of repositioning Nigeria to restore the country’s former envious status.
Recall that the African Union (AU) in recognition of President Buhari’s anti-corruption efforts, named him the Champion of African Union anti-corruption. What else do these despicable detractors want?
However, some pundits have pointed out that despite the effort the government under Buhari invested in setting up preventive mechanisms like IPPIS, Treasury Single Account, among others, the TI still went ahead to write what it likes because it has become a propaganda arm of the enemies of Nigeria. Because of IPPIS, the federal government discovered over 70,000 ghost workers and saved over N206 naira.
The TI report still went against Nigeria in a year President Buhari did not spare even the head of its anti-corruption outfit, Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFFC).
