Graph by Transparency Internatonal

EROMOSELE EBHOMELE
Nigeria’s poor global image has further been dented by a survey result showing it as the country that has the world’s most corrupt political parties.

The survey done by Transparency International, TI, which result was posted in a graph on the global corruption fighting body’s twitter handle, puts Nigeria ahead of 11 other countries rated as it scored 94 percent.

Nigeria is currently preparing for its general elections that were shifted from February to March and April after the country’s Independent National Electoral Commission, INEC, announced that the military says its men would be confronting insurgency and thus would not be available to support the election.

Analysts and the country’s main opposition party, the All Progressives Congress, APC, however accuse the country’s ruling party, the Peoples Democratic Party, PDP, of boxing INEC to postponing the elections.

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Titled: ‘Where most people think political parties are corrupt’, the survey, which showed Nigeria as the only country in Africa coming among the top 11 countries of the world with corrupt political parties, rates Mexico and Cyprus as countries with second most corrupt political parties after they both scored 91 percent in the survey.

They were closely by Nepal and Greece with 91 percent. Italy scored 89 percent, Indonesia and India scored 86 percent.

They were followed by Jamaica and El Savador with 85 percent each while Spain came 11th with 83 percent.

In an accompanying statement from Transparency International, the global corruption fighting organization expressed concern over the delay in Nigerian elections, noting that, it threatens the people’s right to vote and undermines democracy in the country.

It called on the government to ensure not only safety for voters at the polls but that they go ahead without more delays while warning the government against political intimidation and arrests of people before, during and after the elections.

TI stated that Nigeria government called on the INEC to postpone the elections, claiming that the army was not in a position to guarantee security in the face of insurgents in the north east.

INEC has now rescheduled the presidential election to 28 March and 11 April.

“Candidates for all parties have been successfully campaigning in some of the regions where insurgents are known to operate. Clearly the safety of Nigerians comes first and foremost but the government should also ensure that elections are held on time, are transparent and are free from fraud,” said José Ugaz, chair of Transparency International.

•Professor Attahiru Jega, INEC boss.

Under the Nigerian constitution, the current term of government expires on 29 May and elections must happen at least one month prior to this date. The government must commit to this timetable.

It is unclear whether a six weeks’ delay will help the Nigerian army combat the threat from extremist groups such as Boko Haram, which it has been trying to stop for several years. It is imperative that any delay in the election is clearly justified to avert suspicion that the government is simply seeking to hold on to power.

“The government must also ensure that there is no political intimidation and no arrests during the run up to the polls that would trigger violence. Most of eligible voters now have their new election cards, which will make attempts to rig the voting much harder than in the past,” said Ugaz.