Global Integrity Report: Nigeria - 2010

This peer-reviewed country report includes:

Integrity Indicators Scorecard: Scores, scoring criteria, commentary, references, and peer review perspectives for more than 300 Integrity Indicators.

Reporter's Notebook: An on-the-ground look at corruption and integrity from a leading local journalist.

Corruption Timeline: Ten years of political context to today's corruption and integrity issues.

HIGHLIghts

Despite Nigeria's reputation as one of the world's worst countries when it comes to curbing corruption, the landscape is not entirely bleak. The media is able to aggressively report on corruption, and there are increasingly effective procurement rules and regulations in place to avoid large-scale graft and waste in government spending. But major challenges remain for Nigeria, including an ineffective system for the public to request government information, and serious problems with enforcing conflicts of interet safeguards across much of the government. Legal provisions exist to theoretically guarantee a professional civil service, but they are often not enforced, contributing to the country's large implementation gap (the gap bewteen anti-corruption laws on the books and their actual enforcement). The Economic and Financial Crimes Commission has come under serious political pressure in the past but remains a beacon of hope in the fight against corruption in the country.

From the Reporter's Notebook: This case (of a top banker sentenced to jail) intensified many Nigerians’ perceptions that rich and influential people rarely go to jail and, if jailed, they only spend a short time behind bars. While Ibru was sentenced to 18 months in jail for stealing millions, a less affluent citizen, Ibuke Amenike, was sentenced in 2009 to six months in jail for stealing a pair of shoes worth N21,000 (US$140). To further infuriate many, Ibru is to spend the six remaining months of her sentence in a hospital ward reputed to cost N90,000 (US$600) per day, more than a five-star hotel.