Corruption: Transparency International refutes Jonathan’s claim

Transparency International (TI) has denied that it recently rated the country as second most improved country in the fight against corruption.

President Goodluck Ebele Jonathan had said in his Independence Day broadcast yesterday that the global corruption watchdog had endorsed and praised his administration’s war against corruption.

He had said: “We are fighting corruption in all facets of our economy, and we are succeeding.

“We have put an end to several decades of endemic corruption associated with fertiliser and tractor procurement and distribution.

“We have exposed decades of scam in the management of pensions and fuel subsidy, and ensured that the culprits are being brought to book.

“In its latest report, Transparency International (TI) noted that Nigeria is the second most improved country in the effort to curb corruption.”

However, when contacted, the agency denied that it ever listed the country as such.

“Transparency International does not have a recent rating or report that places Nigeria as the second most improved country in the fight against corruption,” it said in its response.

It said its most recent indexing of Nigeria’s corruption activities was in the 2011 Corruption Perceptions Index, which measures perceived level of public sector corruption in the country.

In that index, Nigeria scored 2.4 on a scale where 0 means highly corrupt and 10 means very clean. It was ranked 143 out of 183 countries.

The rating, TI added, was actually a dip in performance for Nigeria as the country was rated 134 out of 183 countries in 2010.

At the time of filing this report, efforts made at reaching the president’s media aides proved abortive as calls and text messages sent to their phones’ were not returned.

Credit: Blueprint