BEVERLY HILLS, December 02 (THEWILL) – Despite President Muhammadu Buhari’s famed determination to wrestle corruption, a new study conducted by Transparency International, TI, and Afrobarometre claims that a great majority of Nigerians think corruption is on the rise with the present government doing little to curtail it.
The report, which was published on Tuesday with the title: “People and Corruption: Africa Survey 2015,” is the outcome of a survey carried out on 43,143 people in 28 Sub-Saharan African countries between March 2014 and September 2015. It revealed that Nigerians number among the least confident about the sincerity and effectiveness of their government’s efforts to fight corruption in the continent.
While 75 per cent of Nigerians believes that corruption is on the rise, the study shows 78 per cent as claiming that government is faring badly in the fight against graft.
It is widely believed that Buhari’s victory at the March 28 Presidential election is attributable to his reputation of being hard on corruption, which the country has been groaning under. He cashed in on the desire of Nigerians to see the country rid of corruption by centering his campaign messages on fighting corruption vigorously.
Following his assumption of office, the President vowed to prosecute former and serving government officials indicted for corruption and has continually solicited the assistance of Western allies to help in the repatriation of fund hidden or laundered in their countries. This was as his famed body language was understood by many anti-graft agencies to go after those alleged to have been involved in the scourge.
However, the Africa Survey 2015, which noted that 43 per cent of public service users in Nigeria said they paid bribes before being served, revealed that Nigeria only ranked below Liberia and Cameroon in the number of times citizens paid bribe to access public service such as healthcare, school, court and policing.
It pointed out that only South Africans with 83 per cent and Ghanaians with 76 per cent believe that corruption is more on the increase in their countries than Nigerians.
The report read in part: “When comparing the results of the different countries that were surveyed, people living in South Africa, Ghana and Nigeria were the most likely to say that they think corruption has risen in the 12 months prior to when the survey was conducted. In these countries three-quarters or more of respondents said corruption has increased either somewhat or a lot.
“In Benin, Liberia, Nigeria, South Africa and Zimbabwe people think poorly of their governments’ anti-corruption efforts with around four-in-five saying that their government is doing badly.
“Liberia has by far the highest rate of bribery of the countries that were surveyed, with 69 per cent of people who came into contact with at least one of these six services having paid a bribe in the past year. This is followed by Cameroon, Nigeria and Sierra Leone which were found to have high bribery rates of between 41 and 48 per cent. Cote d’Ivoire, Ghana, Guinea, Kenya and Uganda also have bribery rates that are far higher than the regional average.”
On the breakdown of how the various segments of the Nigerian society are perceived as corrupt, the report noted that the 72 per cent of Nigerians rate the police as the most corrupt public institution in the country closely followed by government official, 63 per cent.
Religious leaders (28 per cent) and traditional leaders (36 per cent) were however rated as the least corrupt classes of people in the country, with ordinary Nigerians identified as the second most helpless people in Africa as regards tackling corruption.
This was as only 39 per cent of the Nigerian respondents to the survey believed that ordinary people can make a difference in the fight against corruption.
