From Juliana Taiwo-Obalonye, New York
Civil Society Legislative Advocacy Centre’s (CISLAC) has said despite the Federal Government spending $670 million on security votes yearly, the situation has continued to deteriorate.
It stated this against the backdrop of the launch of Nigeria’s Sustainable Development Goals (SDG) 16 Shadow Report, 2022 Tuesday in New York, USA.
Executive Director of CISLAC, Auwal Rafsanjani released the report on the sidelines of the 77th session of the United Nations General Assembly (UNGA).
He said though the report captured Nigeria’s slight improvement from previous reports on the fight against corruption, insecurity has pervaded every part of the country, while various media houses come under various sanctions from the President Muhammadu Buhari’s administration.
According to the report, 5,067 Nigerians were killed owing to insecurity in 2021, and an average of 14 Nigerians were killed daily. Its findings showed a 52.3 per cent rise in reported killings when compared to 2020 (Findings from The Cable Index and the Council of Foreign Relations).
The report also captured the looming debt crisis, quoting an official data that showed that Nigeria had a revenue of N1.63 trillion in the first quarter of 2022, noting that the generated amount was not enough to service (not pay) the debt of the country for that quarter stood at N1.94 trillion.
The report also expressed captured prevalence of vote trading in the country’s electoral process.
The shadow reports sought to measure Nigeria’s progress on SDG 16.
Rafsanjani said the report was prepared using a Transparency International (TI) global template which helps for cross chapter comparison amongst countries.
“The aim of this report is to monitor and explore the progress within the agenda 2030 with the focus on the SDG 16 targets earlier mentioned (16.4; 16.5 and 16.10) which have been analysed in depth. This research encompasses over 14 policy areas and 76 indicators distinctly developed as part of the global Transparency International project of ‘shadow reporting’ the official Voluntary National Reports (VNRs) prepared by the governments as a self-assessment against the SDG goals.”
Rafsanjani said CISLAC in this year’s report, noted an improvement in two indicators as compared to three in 2021 and six in 2019.
“This improvement which can be seen in the policy areas of money laundering and asset recovery, is attributed to the passage and assent into law of the Money Laundering (Prevention and Prohibition) Bill and Proceeds of Crime Management Bill in May 2022.
“The Money Laundering (Prevention and Prohibition) Act 2022 aims to strengthen the powers of relevant agencies in dealing with challenges posed by money laundering by expanding the scope of money laundering in the prevention, prohibition, detection, prosecution, and punishment of offenders. The Proceeds of Crime Management Act 2022 aims to better manage recovered assets through the establishment of a central database as well as the establishment of directorates to manage recovered assets in various jurisdictions amongst other measures.
“However, the lack of progress on other indicators can be attributed to three major factors. The worsening insecurity across Nigeria has raised concern amongst citizens. In addition to this, there is a high level of corruption amidst an increase in national debt. As seen on to the 2021 Corruption Perception Index (CPI) released globally by Transparency International where Nigeria scored 24 out of 100 points which is its worst since 2012 when the methodology of the CPI was reformed.”