Impact of Corruption Index Report

Ugo Aliogo examines the impact of the Corruption Index Report on President Muhammadu Buhari’s anti-corruption fight

Recently, Transparency International (TI) Released the 2021 Corruption Perceptions Index (CPI). The CPI indicates that there is much work to be done by the administration of President Muhammadu Buhari to ensure that the lives of citizens are improved.

The report, which was released in Nigeria by the Civil Society Legislative Advocacy Centre (CISLAC), revealed that Nigeria scored 24 out of 100 points in the 2021 CPI, falling back one point compared to the 2020 CPI. In the country comparison for this year, Nigeria ranks 154 out of 180 countries-five places down compared to the 2020 CPI results.

The CPI result comes at a point when Nigeria is battling with rising nation-wide insecurity, high unemployment rate and damning revelations around public finance management by the Auditor-General and investigative journalists, and others.

This is however not an assessment of Nigeria’s anti-graft agencies that are making commendable efforts in reducing corruption in Nigeria despite the political interference they face. Rather, the CPI goes beyond the anti-graft agencies.

In October last year, CISLAC/TI received the report of the committee set up by the government in March 2021 to review Nigeria’s rating on the 2020 CPI shortly after CISLAC/TI- Nigeria released the 2020 CPI. CISLAC/TI-Nigeria sees this move as a good step and would like to urge government to further examine the weaknesses listed below and consider actions which will tackle systemic corruption and salvage Nigeria’s deteriorating image when it comes to corruption.

Accordingly, CISLAC/TI-Nigeria have listed key weaknesses to explain why Nigeria may not have improved in the fight against corruption. We feel that these areas require immediate improvement for the sake of the well-being of ordinary Nigerians and the economy.

Negative Audit Report
The report noted that the non-compliance/internal control weaknesses issues in Ministries, Departments and Agencies (MDAs) report for 2019 published by the Office of the Auditor General of the Federation in November 2021, have left Nigerians in awe.
It remarked that the level of financial recklessness, abuse of budgetary processes, and failure of Ministries, Departments and Agencies (MDAs) in following the due process of appropriation is disturbing. For example, The Auditor-General revealed that the sum of N49bn was spent by nine MDAs without appropriation by the National Assembly. This is in gross violation of section 80 (4) of the 1999 Constitution as amended).
The report argued that the recent revelations made on the January, 17 by BudgIT on the duplication of projects in the 2022 budget do less to palliate the pandemic corruption currently experienced despite a rising unemployment rate of 33 percent.

Systemic Corruption

The report further explained that the systemic corruption in the Nigeria Police Force has sadly continued unabated and with the police at the frontline of Nigeria’s criminal justice system with enormous powers to investigate and prosecute crimes, adding that the weakness puts the country in bad light.

The report argued that the Police Force was indicted by the Auditor General’s report on the “Non- Compliance/Internal Control Weaknesses Issues in Ministries, Departments and Agencies (MDAs) published in November 2021” and Nigerians are still struggling to understand how 178,459 arms and ammunition were missing from the armoury of the Nigeria Police without trace, “of this figure, 88, 078 were AK 47 assault rifles and 3,907 assorted rifles and pistols.”

The report said: “For context, these arms are enough to arm a force equivalent to about 25% of the current strength of the Nigeria Police at 370,000 which gives an explanation on the level of insecurity in the country.

“Findings from The Cable Index and the Council of Foreign Relations show that 5,067 Nigerians were killed owing to insecurity in 2021, and an average of 14 Nigerians were killed daily. According to these findings, this shows a 52.3 per cent rise in reported killings when compared to 2020.

“In addition to the above, the Auditor-General’s report showed that over 17,000 police officers had future dates of employment with hundreds employed before their date of birth.”

The CDD ED argued that over the years, the Nigeria Police Force (NPF) has been ranked the most corrupt institution in Nigeria by the Transparency International Corruption Index (CPI) and has been a result of the accusation on the policing system, pointing out that in addressing the challenge the youths stormed the streets in 2020 with the #EndSars campaign which they developed recommendations to address the persistent corruption in the police system.

In her words, “However, to checkmate the systemic corruption in the Nigerian police, there is the need for the restructuring of the sector. This will include the introduction of technology into the daily activities of the policing system in Nigeria. For example, the use of body cameras should be introduced to officers out of official duty. Also, the internal affairs of the policy should be automated and oversight should be on the activities of the security unit and there should be access to files, documentation and databases of the police. But importantly is the remuneration and condition of services of the Police be improved while emphasizing zero tolerance to corruption and breach of the law.”

Corruption Cases

The report revealed that Nigeria’s anti-graft agencies have made commendable progress in their efforts to combat corruption in 2021 with an increase in convictions, but frowned that high profile convictions of Politically Exposed Persons (PEPs) across political, regional and any other form of divide has fallen short of public expectations.

The report commended the arrest of cyber criminals and called on the anti-graft agencies to do more, noting that there is a need to investigate high profile political cases including those of individuals who have switched political affiliations.

According to the report, “A case in point is the Pandora Papers revelations which is one of the biggest ever corruption leaks led by the International Consortium of Investigative Journalists (ICIJ) and over 600 journalists from 117 countries, including Journalists from Nigeria’s Premium Times. A close look at the Pandora Papers published in 2021 reveals that Nigeria tops the African continent when looking at the number of those exposed. Following the pattern of two previous leaks (i.e., the Paradise Papers and Panama Papers, which were released in 2016 and 2017, respectively), the Pandora Papers exposes systems and secrecy jurisdictions that enable and abate crime, corruption, and illicit dealings by politicians, billionaires, influential individuals, and their enablers globally.

“Since its release on October 3, 2021, Nigerians are yet to see any action or get answers from anti-graft agencies whose work has been made easier by the diligent reporters from Premium Times which highlighted stolen or suspiciously acquired assets to be investigated. With the elections fast approaching, and the response so far, politicalcorruption is expected to be on the rise and anti-graft agencies need to live up to the expectations of Nigerians.”

Hassan said in 2021, the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC), the Independent Corrupt Practices and other related offences Commission (ICPC), and the Code of Conduct Bureau (CCB) in total recovered approximately N900 billion in stolen assets over the last two decades.

She further explained that the organisation has also secured the convictions of high-profile corruption cases and high-profile convictions of Politically Exposed Persons (PEPs) such as the conviction and sentence of the former Governor of Plateau State, Joshua Dariye to 14 years imprisonment for diverting public funds to the tune of N1.126billion, “however, the perspective of Nigeria’s is that the government anti-graft war is not inclusive as it is structured against opposition party members.”

She added: “The anti-graft agencies are doing their best but need more support in funding, capacity and legal provisions. But important is illicit financial flows, what resources lost through IFF is more than that lost through Political corruption and that is beside the fact that even these PEP use IFF to funnel out their monies from Nigeria. We have to work harder at blocking the leakages.”

Protecting Whistle-Blowers

The report disclosed that regarding asset recovery, Nigerian anti-graft agencies have made progress in recoveries, specifically those that have been finally forfeited. It espoused that the repeated failure to enact the proceeds of crime act as a legal framework for the management and utilization of recovered assets in Nigeria, which is one of the key pillars of this administration’s anti-corruption strategy is inexplicable. The argument from the report is that while Nigerians read about these recoveries by the numerous agencies with mandates to recover assets, Nigerians are in the dark as to the status of these recoveries, “yet, Nigeria is expected to incur a deficit of about N6 trillion on its 2022 budget.”

The report added: “Quick wins like the establishment of a central data base for asset recovery accessible to all citizens is yet to materialize. While the government claims to have an asset recovery database, citizens and representatives from the media do not have access to this data base to confirm its content. This data is thus impossible to verify.

“The continuous absence of a Whistle Blower Protection Legislation leaves Nigerian anti-corruption agencies deprived of key insider intelligence. Formerly known as the Audit Ordinance, the 1956 Audit Act which was enacted before Nigeria’s Independence limits the powers of the Auditor General’s office. Revelations from the Auditor General underscores that Nigeria urgently needs a new audit law more than ever. This law must have the best interest of Nigerians.”

Hassan revealed that the country requires a coordinated legal framework on asset tracing, recovery, management and utilization. This can be achieved through the speedy passing of the Proceed of Crime Act (POCA) by the legislature.
According to her, “The whistleblowing is a community-driven approach to combat corruption, but there is a need for clear policy proclamations and political will for whistleblowing and whistle-blower protection in Nigeria policy to be turned into an act. This is because policies have their limitations, and they are legitimate enough to combat the menace of corruption. This means there is a need for a strong commitment and political will to address corruption in the public sector.

“Also, whistleblowing should be considered as a moral norm and lawful duty of Nigerian citizens. Maximum protection needs to be provided for whistle-blower from negative consequences from his/her actions by providing legal backing to safeguard citizens that are willing to expose corrupt acts. Given this, there is the need for the legislative and the executive to fast-track the outstanding with SLE blowing bill.

“Finally, for a better anti-graft war corruption, there is a need for the country to develop a coordinated legal framework in fighting corruption and effectiveness of laws such as the Freedom of Information Act (FOIA), public procurement act and other related act.”

Anti-corruption Fight

Reacting to the report, the Executive Director, Centre for Democracy and Development (CDD), Idayat Hassan, stated that one of the campaign promises of the President Muhammadu Buhari in 2015 was to combat corruption in all sectors of Nigeria, adding that the APC also made use of the CPI as data that President and his party leveraged to covers their anti-corruption campaign agenda.

She remarked that since the emergence of the administration the country has yearly fallen in Transparency International Corruption perception index (CPI) following the TI tool for measuring the levels of corruption in the systems of various countries around the world.

She hinted that the maximum points a country could score is 100 points, and the least is zero, while zero signifies the worst performing countries and 100, the best-ranked.

She argued that from 2015 to 2021, the administration has revealed that they made progress in the fight against corruption in Nigeria by prosecuting some politically exposed persons such as the former Plateau State governor, Joshua Dariye, who was sentenced to 14 years in prison for corruption-related cases.

The CDD ED revealed that the administration has adopted innovation in her fight against corruption, made some good appointments into ICPC and Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC). But argued that corruption is yet to institutionalized as Nigerians expected, “the Buhari effect is yet to be felt. Hence the lack of citizens confidence in the fight against corruption. And gaining the confidence of citizens is real.”

According to her, “Maybe our emphasis has been so much focused on fighting political corruption, cybercrimes leaving petty corruption which permeates different strata of society unattended. Also important is the refusal to implement the auditor general report which keeps getting damning with each passing year. MDAs are failing to submit their audit reports, cases of unauthorized payments and leakages in government revenue are abound. For example, in the 2017 audited report, about 265 agencies defaulted in the submission of audited accounts; while 11 agencies have never submitted a financial statement since inception. The 2019 audit report recorded an unsubstantiated materiality of “The N4.973 trillion way above the materiality level of N89.34 billion set. All these are too monumental when we add the corruption in the COVID 19 response to it. While the country is prioritising asset recovery, there is still no legal framework covering it, whistle-blowers law, are just few examples of what need to happen.”

Addressing Systemic Corruption

Hassan argued that though there are structures in place to address the systemic corruption in Nigeria such as the implementation of the Treasury Single Account (TSA), but noted that systemic corruption persists due to a lack of proper oversight public sector and strict sanctions against culprits.

She added that more importantly there is a refusal to address petty corruption permeating all sectors, from police, health care sector, education, just to mention few, corruption are abound, “it is the petty corruption and our failure as a country to address it that gives us the bad rating.”

According to her, “One of the major weaknesses of government in combating is the lack of strong political will as corruption undermines the power of government because it goes hand in hand with politics. For example, bribery, trading in influence and state capture are widespread indices of political systems and made it for the government to be incapacitated to address corruption due to vested interests. The use of the justice system itself is a challenge to the fight against corruption.