POLITICS: NIGERIA RANKS 35TH IN GOVERNANCE IN AFRICA

The latest Ibrahim Index of African Governance (IIAG) has ranked Nigeria 35th out of 54 African countries in its overall governance ranking. Nigeria's weakness point is accountability and transparency.

According to the report released on November 20, 2017, in Dakar, Senegal, the Mo Ibrahim Foundation highlighted that Nigeria has shown a significant improvement in the last five years. More so, the 35th position for 2017 is a rank better than its position in 2016 (36th).

“Over the last ten years, 40 African countries have improved in Overall Governance. In the last five years, 18 of these – a third of the continent’s countries and home to 58% of African citizens – including Cote d’Ivoire, Morocco, Namibia, Nigeria and Senegal, have even managed to accelerate their progress. In 2016, the continent achieved its highest Overall Governance score to date (50.8 out of 100.0),” the report says.

Mauritius was ranked the best country on governance index in the continent. It scored 81.4 percent in the overall governance index. Seychelles (73.4), Botswana (72.7), Cabo Verde (72.2) and Namibia (71.2) joined Mauritius in the first five top countries in the index.

Of the 40 countries that improved in Overall Governance in the last ten years, 18 are picking up pace over the last five years. In the last five years, their annual average increase in score is greater than that of the last ten years. This includes only four of the top ten highest scoring countries in Overall Governance in 2016: Seychelles (2nd), Namibia (5th), Tunisia (7th) and Senegal (10th).

Nigeria achieves its highest category score in Participation & Human Rights (52.5), and its lowest category score in Sustainable Economic Opportunity (42.3). Also, the country achieved more in the sub-category score of Rule of Law (63.1), and its lowest sub-category score was Accountability (32.7).

The foundation expressed optimism about the increasing number of strong institutions, and more governments in Africa have started paying attention to key dimensions of good governance.

“As the index shows us, overall governance in Africa is improving. This is good news. However, the slowing and in some cases even reversing trends in a large number of countries, and in some key dimensions of governance, means that we must be vigilant. Without vigilance and sustained efforts, the progress of recent years could be in danger of vanishing.”