Magu gets global endorsement as Nigeria improves in TI corruption index

The Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC) says its Acting Chairman, Mr Ibrahim Magu, has been endorsed by 25 countries around the world for his relentless fight against corruption.

The Spokesman of the commission, Mr Wilson Uwujaren, said this in a statement on Friday.

Uwujaren said the endorsement was the outcome of an opinion poll conducted by UK-based Global Peace Movement International.

The poll came a week after Transparency International (TI) released its latest transparency index, he said.

According to him, Nigeria for the first time in over a decade, moved up in the global anti-corruption and transparency ranking.

He said that analysts had attributed the improvement to the efforts of the EFCC under Magu.

“According to the report by Transparency International, the corruption perception index ranked 176 countries on a scale of 0 (perceived to be corrupt) to 100 (perceived to be clean).

“In the report, Somalia was ranked the most corrupt country in the world for the tenth straight year,” the spokesman said.

The President General of Global Peace Movement International, Dr Mike Uyi, said the poll was conducted to ascertain global opinion on the work of the EFC.

Uyo said Magu secured more than 96 per cent endorsement by respondents, with the U. S., the UK, France, Germany, Russia, Canada, China and Belgium commending the work of the commission.

According to the report of the survey, the U.S. topped the list of countries that endorsed the EFCC chairman with 92 per cent of its respondents for, and 7 per cent against.

The UK returned a 96 per cent affirmative and France 85.
Other results of the poll, Uwujaren added, showed that 90 per cent of German respondents voted in favour of the EFCC chairman, while 9 per cent disapproved.

Russia had 62 per cent in favour, and 29 per cent against; Greece, 73 per cent for, and 22 per cent against him.

Malta had 80 per cent in favour with 17 per cent disapproval; Sweden, 85 per cent approval, and 7 per cent disapproval, and Belgium, 85 per cent for, and 8 per cent.

Switzerland, Norway, Austria and India had 76, 85, 81 and 53 per cent approvals respectively, and 11, 8, 6 and 26 per cent disapproval in that order.

According to the EFCC spokesman, Brazil and China returned 65 per cent approvals each, and a disapproval rating of 27 and 22 per cent respectively.

In Denmark, 84 per cent of the respondents voted for Magu, and 4 per cent against, while in Canada it was 91 per cent for and 3 per cent disapproval.

Other countries, including Japan, Luxemberg, Mexico, South Korea, Portugal, Monaco and Netherlands returned approval ratings of between 70 and 95 per cent.

Uyi said results of the survey on other elected or appointed public officials in Nigeria would soon be released to the public.