Ebun Francis || Transparency International on Wednesday said that corruption is alive in Nigeria and even getting worse, going by the latest corruption perception index (CPI) released by the anti-corruption agency.
Whereas the country was ranked 136th in 2016, the latest CPI scores Nigeria 28/100 but with a rank of No. 148 out of 180 countries surveyed — this is 12 places below where it was in 2016.
The index, which ranks 180 countries and territories by their perceived levels of public sector corruption in the opinion of experts and business people, uses a scale of 0 to 100, where 0 is highly corrupt and 100 is very clean.
The analysis of the report shows that Kenya, which was rated more corrupt than Nigeria in 2016, has now ahead of the country, climbing to 143 from 145.
Other sub-Saharan African countries ranked higher than Nigeria are Botswana — ranked 34 and the best in Africa — as well as Rwanda ( 48) and Nambia ( 53).
Nigeria is ranked 148 along with Guinea and Comoros.
Nigeria’s abysmal ranking is a blow to the President Muhammadu Buhari who was elected into office on the strength of his anti-corruption credential.