Global rankings show Nigeria and Afghanistan really
are among the world’s most corrupt countries – yet we give them
millions of pounds in aid which could actually fuel corruption.
Transparency
International, an international non-governmental organisation, ranks
war-torn Afghanistan as the third worst country in the world for
corruption, only better than North Korea and Somalia, while Nigeria is
32nd from bottom.
Despite
this, Britain gives £237million a year in aid to Nigeria and
£198million to Afghanistan, the latest figures show. The total aid
spending on the two countries is 35 per cent higher than when David
Cameron came to power in 2010.
Two
years ago, a report from an aid watchdog found that UK aid fuels
corruption in Nigeria, with one scheme increasing the likelihood that
locals would have to pay backhanders to the police. The Independent
Commission For Aid Impact said the Department for International
Development (DfID) was not ‘up to the challenge’ of tackling corruption,
often because it was concerned about offending local politicians.
NIGERIA: CORRUPTION
Transparency International’s corruption perception index puts Nigeria at 136 out of 168 countries.
Corruption
is endemic in Nigeria, with estimates as high as 400billion US dollars
lost since it won independence from Britain in 1960.
A
2014 study by the Independent Commission For Aid Impact found: ‘Petty
corruption touches virtually every aspect of life and is accepted
throughout society as normal and necessary. We heard stories of parents
paying bribes to teachers to educate their children, workers paying
bribes to get jobs and receive their salaries, and pensioners paying
bribes to receive pensions.’
It
is believed that up to 20billion US dollars have gone missing from the
books of the state oil company, the Nigerian National Petroleum
Corporation.
Millions of dollars meant to be spent on vaccinations and on the fight against ebola have been illegally diverted.
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