TI Global Corruption Barometer gets instant response from Kenya's police

Interesting article from Kenya, showing the Inspector General of Police's response to the recent TI report that ranked Kenya's police as the most corrupt public institution. The IG urged citizens to capture evidence of illicit transactions with police on their mobile phones and said they would get tougher with those caught.

Nigerian Police were also identified as one of the most corrupt public institutions according to the global corruption barometer. It will be interesting to see if there is an equally positive reaction from the Nigerian counterparts.

Kenya: Stop Bribing My Officers - Kimaiyo (article)

Simple ways to present complex findings

Long, complex reports with important findings regularly fail to have the needed impact. People need to understand the 'so what' of a report in order for them to put pressure for change.   This is true for anti-corruption reforms as it is for any other complex policy area.

Yourbudgit.com have been doing a good job in simplifying complex information and helping people to visualise important Nigerian policy issues. See link below for a good example:

Yourbudgit.com

Voice of the voiceless - ‘Ordinary Ahmad’

There are few public voices in Nigeria ready to speak truth to power.  The story of ‘Ordinary Ahmad’ is far from ordinary. Ahmad Isah hosts a regular morning call in radio show ‘the Brekete family’, where Nigerians in the Federal Capital Territory come to Ahmad with their problems. His show enables citizens to voice complaints on wide ranging issues from non-payment of pensions, unfair dismissal, poor treatment in government hospitals etc.  Many of these issues are strongly linked to corruption.

Ordinary Ahmad regularly makes phone calls to Nigeria’s top government officials and politicians live on air to help resolve citizen’s problems. This is accountability at its most direct.  His show has been off air for almost four weeks. No one seems to be sure why. I join other Nigerians in hoping that his show will come back on air soon.

A taste of ‘Ordinary Ahmad’ in action.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EcQBiL7dJrM

‘Corruption has increased’ – say majority of Nigerians, ‘but we can make a difference’

                                                                                                                            

According to Transparency International’s Global Corruption Barometer which surveyed a 1000 Nigerians, there is good and bad news for Nigeria’s fight against corruption:

Bad News

• 85% of Nigerians believe that corruption has increased over the last two years.
• 94% believe corruption is a problem in the Public Sector.
•  72% believe Government is run by a few big entities acting in their own self-interest
• 75% believe the Government is ineffective in its fight against corruption.The institutions perceived to be the most corrupt were political parties and the police, while 81% admitted to having paid a bribe to the police.
• 24% reported paying a bribe to the judiciary.

Good news

• 56% of Nigerians (a slight majority) believe that ordinary citizens can make a difference in the fight against corruption.

Despite the depressing statistics on what Nigerians believe and have experienced on corruption, we can take encouragement that a slight majority believe that ordinary citizens can make a difference. The challenge for Nigeria is working out how.

http://www.transparency.org/gcb2013/country/?country=nigeria

How did Nigeria perform in the 2012 Corruption Perception index?

The Corruption Perception Index is produced by Transparency International, a global civil society organisation focused on fighting corruption. It ranks countries based on how corrupt their public sector is perceived to be. This year, an update was made on the methodology used to measure the index. The measurement is now based on a scale of 0 to 100 with a score of 0 perceived as "highly corrupt" and 100 "very clean". Nigeria ranked 139 out of 176 countries with a score of 27.

In Sub-Sahara Africa, Botswana ranked the best at 30 with a CPI score of 65. Cape Verde ranked the best in the West African region with a position of 39 and CPI score of 60.Ghana ranked 64 with a CPI score of 45.  Nigeria ranked the 3^rd most corrupt country in the West African Region. Please see table below showing Nigeria’s performance in comparison with other West African countries.

Performance of West African Countries in the 2012 Corruption Perception Index

	Position	Country	Rank	Score
	1	Cape Verde	39	60
	2	Ghana	64	45
	3	Liberia	75	41
	4	Burkina Faso	83	38
	5	Benin	94	36
	6	Senegal	94	36
	7	Gambia	105	34
	8	Mali	105	34
	9	Niger	113	33
	10	Sierra Leone	123	31
	11	Mauritania	123	31
	12	Togo	128	30
	13	Cote d’Ivoire	130	29
	14	Nigeria	139	27
	15	Guinea Bissau	150	25
	16	Guinea	154	24

http://cpi.transparency.org/cpi2012/results/