Above: Mo Ibrahim
The Mo Ibrahim International Index for Governance in Africa has adjudged Nigeria the 36th out of 54 African countries in the governance index.
The report was released in London on Monday.
Nigeria scored 46.5 out of 100 points in the overall governance index that saw Cote d’ Ivoire, Togo and Zimbabwe being the three most improved in the governance rating of all 54 African countries surveyed.
Nigeria is one of ten countries that improved in all four sectors that were used for measurement, namely, Accountability, Participation & Human Rights, Sustainable Economic Opportunity and Human Development.
Nigeria was, however, rated poorly in the national security sub-sector having declined by 28.6 points over a ten year period from 2006 to 2015.
Indeed, the index rated Nigeria with the second most deteriorated score in the sub-category.
There was much expectation for improvement for Nigeria under its current leadership.
The 2016 Ibrahim Index of African Governance (IIAG), launched by the Mo Ibrahim Foundation, reveals that improvement in overall governance in Africa over the past ten years has been held back by a widespread deterioration in the category of Safety and Rule of Law.
A statement accompanying the release said:
“The tenth edition of the IIAG, the most comprehensive analysis of African governance undertaken to date, brings together a decade of data to assess each of Africa’s 54 countries against 95 indicators drawn from 34 independent sources.
“This year, for the first time, the IIAG includes Public Attitude Survey data from Afrobarometer.
“This captures Africans’ own perceptions of governance, which provide fresh perspective on the results registered by other data such expert assessment and official data.
“Over the last decade, overall governance has improved by one score point at the continental average level, with 37 countries – home to 70% of African citizens – registering progress.
“This overall positive trend has been led mainly by improvement in Human Development and Participation & Human Rights.
“Sustainable Economic Opportunity also registered an improvement, but at a slower pace.
“However, these positive trends stand in contrast to a pronounced and concerning drop in Safety & Rule of Law, for which 33 out of the 54 African countries – home to almost two-thirds of the continent’s population – have experienced a decline since 2006, 15 of them quite substantially.”
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