The 2021 Transparency International (TI) Corruption Perceptions Index (CPI) ranking has shown Nigeria dropping one place again.
The report, released by TI in its official Twitter handle (@TranperencITng) on Tuesday, said Nigeria scored 24 out of 100 points in the 2021 index.
It was Nigeria’s second consecutive year of a downward spiral on the TI’s CPI ranking.
Nigeria’s ranking dropped from 26 to 25 in the 2020 assessment, and now to 24 in the latest 2021 ranking.
The CPI is TI’s tool for measuring the levels of corruption in the systems of various countries around the world.
The maximum points a country can score is 100 points, and the least is zero. Zero signifies the worst performing countries and 100, the best-ranked.
Nigeria keeps its 149th position out of the 180 countries surveyed, making it the second most corrupt country in West Africa.
This seems to suggest that corruption in the country has worsened over the years.
Meanwhile, the Nigerian government is yet to react to the latest ranking.
Recall that the Federal Government had discredited the 2020 TI’s ranking, which also did not favour it.
It had through the Minister of Information and Culture, Lai Mohammed, argued that (TI-CPI) the ranking did not reflect “the great strides by the country in its fight against corruption,” insisting that the body was unaware of President Muhammadu Buhari’s administration’s achievements in the battle against corruption.