The Corruption Perception Index, CPI released on Tuesday by Transparency International indicates Nigeria has recorded an improved ranking.
Moving five places up to rank 145 out of 180 countries evaluated. Nigeria also added one point to its previous twenty- four, ending up scoring twenty-five out of the one hundred maximum points in the 2023 corruption perception index, CPI results.
The Corruption Perception Index measures how corrupt each country’s Public Sector.
The CPI scores from zero to one hundred, where zero means ‘highly corrupt’ and one hundred means ‘very clean’.
According to Transparency International, Nigeria’s small improvement in points scored places it below the Sub-Saharan African average of thirty- three points.
Seychelles’ 71 score in the Corruption Perception Index remains the top scorer in the continent, followed by Cape Verde with 64 and Botswana with 59 points.
Equatorial Guinea recorded 17, South Sudan has 13, and Somalia with 11 points, performed the lowest with no sign of improvement.
Nigeria, Liberia, Madagascar and Mozambique all share the 145th position in the 2023 Corruption Perception Index.
Incidents of bribery, extortion and political interference in judicial systems of countries like Nigeria, to the dismissal and imprisonment of magistrates accused of corruption in Burundi and the denial of justice for victims of human rights violations in the Democratic Republic of Congo, are instances that underline the justice system’s critical role in safeguarding basic human rights and social equity.
Civil societies and anti-corruption experts say that the 2023 CPI is an indicator that countries in Sub-Saharan Africa have a long way to go in their fight against corruption.