The world’s corruption monitor,Transparency International, in its recently released 2014 report, classified Nigeria as the 144th most corrupt nation among the 177 countries studied. In 2012, Nigeria was ranked as the 124th most corrupt nation among the less than 170 countries examined. The anti-corruption crusader named Afghanistan, North Korea and Somalia as the world’s most corrupt countries while Denmark and New Zealand were given clean bills of health with little or no corruption blemish.
The report gave Nigeria as an example of countries where oil resources were available to only a few elite. It is an irony that the country’s oil wealth that is supposed to catalyze its development has become a main channel of corruption. Over the years, trillions of naira that the country earned from petroleum products largely ended up in private pockets to the utter detriment of the majority of the people. Each succeeding year, administration after administration, the scandal of corruption gets deeper in the country with no redemption in sight.
The situation has become so bad that no government official or agency knows what the country actually earns from oil exploration and production. All the citizens get to hear are contradictory official statements on the income from the sector. Meanwhile, it is no secret that a lot of government functionaries and their cronies are feeding fat on the national wealth. This is apart from illegal bunkering that has taken a life of its own since the advent of the present administration.
This poor corruption ranking should serve as a clarion call to all Nigerians and the three tiers of government to buckle up in the fight against graft. This is not a time for rebuttals or lampooning ofTransparency International. The move from 124th to the 144th position on this index shows clearly that the country is not confronting the corruption monster as it should. If it were not so, there ought to have been significant improvement in Nigeria’s rating.
The battle against corruption is one that all Nigerians must be involved in. It should not be left to government officials alone, as the menace cuts across all strata of the society. Churches, mosques, schools, clubs, not-for-profit organisations, professional bodies, the civil service, organised private sector and the general public must join hands in combating the ogre.
Nigeria’s anti-corruption agencies must sit up. The impression that has been created by this ranking is that the country is losing the battle against corruption. We would have expected that with all the interventions from both national and international anti-corruption agencies, the problem would have declined by now. It does not make sense to have this menace flourishing and undermining development in the country. The only way the continuing degeneracy can be explained is that, collectively, we are not getting our acts together. Nigerians must gird their loins if this fight against corruption must be won. Otherwise, we are likely to descend further in next year’s ranking.
Nigeria should not be lagging behind in every human development indicator. We must strive to exit the club of notorious nations and do all we can to become a continental reference point. We must harness our natural and human resources to uplift the country. Nigeria cannot be so blessed and yet the majority of its citizens will be living in abject poverty while a clique squanders the riches of the country through institutionalized corruption.
The time has come for us to ask questions on how the nation’s oil wealth is being managed. Docility cannot correct the flaws. All those who are responsible for management of oil revenue must be made accountable. We must strive to make living above board an integral aspect of public life. This is the only way to get out of thiscul-de-sac.
The government needs to tighten the noose on perpetrators of illegal oil bunkering and other economic saboteurs. Severe sanctions should be meted out to public officials who compromise their offices for personal gains. The time has come, too, for Nigerians to start looking at the broader picture of corruption. It is an all-encompassing phenomenon that touches all aspects of human existence; hence, the need for concerted efforts and jettisoning of the current cavalier approach to corruption fighting. The perception of Nigeria as a sleazy nation must change.
Source:http://sunnewsonline.com/new/editorial/nigerias-worsening-corruption-ranking/

Jonathan's destiny is to bankrupt Nigeria .
Tunde Bakare