Nigeria Now Among 34 Most Corrupt Countries
By: Bode Gbadebo on December 4, 2013 – 3:30am
The Transparency International Corruption Perception Index for 2013 has revealed that Nigeria is among the 34 most corrupt nations in the world. In the latest TI report released yesterday, Nigeria dropped from 139th position in 2012 to 144th this year
According to TI, the index measures the perceived levels of public sector corruption in 177 countries and territories worldwide. Scoring them from 0 (highly corrupt) to 100 (very clean), the 2013 index paints a worrying picture for the country.
The group said a handful of countries performed well and not one single country got a perfect score, while more than two-thirds of the countries involved scored less than 50, a situation which, it added, indicates a serious worldwide corruption problem.
“The world urgently needs a renewed effort to crack down on money laundering, clean up political finance, pursue the return of stolen assets and build more transparent public institutions,” TI said.
South Sudan rose from the position of the most corrupt country last year to 173rd position which made it rise five places on the index table this year, while Nigeria equally dropped five places from 139th position in 2012 to 144th in the latest ranking. Nigeria shares its current position with five other nations including neighbouring Cameroon, Central African Republic, Iran, Papua New Guinea and Ukraine. Botswana is listed among the 30 least corrupt nations in the world.
Nigeria is trailing other 35 African countries behind. They include, in order of ranking Botswana (30th), Cape Verde (41st), Mauritius (52nd), Lesotho (55th), Namibia (57th), Ghana (63rd), Sao Tome and Principe (72nd), South Africa (72nd), Senegal (77th), Tunisia (77th), among several others.
Denmark and New Zealand are comparatively the least corrupt nations in the world as Demark maintained its lead by improving on the perception index compared to 2012. New Zealand upstaged Finland to further share the first position with Denmark this year as it was in 2012 while Finland is relegated to take 3rd position in the current ranking as the against sharing 1st slot with the duo of Denmark and New Zealand last year.
Other good performing countries among the best 10 are Sweden (3rd), Norway (5th), Singapore (5th), Switzerland (7th), Netherlands (8th), Australia (9th), Canada (9th), among others. War-torn Syria ranked 168th led other nine countries in the last 10 nations regarded as most corrupt. Others are Turkmenistan (168th), Uzbekistan (168th), Iraq (171st), Libya (172nd), South Sudan (173rd), Sudan (174th), Afghanistan (175th), North Korea (175th) and Somalia (175th).
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