Corruption survey to assess effectiveness of FG’s fight against corruption- NBS

The National Bureau of Statistics (NBS) says its corruption survey is aimed at assessing the Federal Government’s fight against corruption. The Statistician-General of the Federation, Prince Semiu Adeniran, said this at the Train the Trainers programme for the Third National Survey on Quality and Integrity of Public Services in Nigeria in Abuja on Monday. The News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) reports that the survey, also called the Corruption Survey, is the third of its kind with the first two conducted in 2017 and 2019. Adeniran, represented by the Bureau’s Director of ICT, Mr Biyi Fafunmi, said the training was a significant milestone in efforts to collectively combat the scourge of corruption in Nigeria. He said corruption had remained a formidable challenge as such the insights gathered would guide the country towards a more transparent and accountable future.

He said the outcome of the survey was not to castigate or point fingers at any individual or institution, but to make the necessary commitment to improving the quality of public service available to Nigerians. “It is also to enhance the trust in the relationship between the citizens and public offices. This is an important hallmark of development in any society. This third round is being conducted in collaboration with the United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime (UNODC) and the MacArthur Foundation. The survey is not only important as a policy decision tool but also strategic and timely. The results will help assess the effectiveness of the efforts deployed by the government to tackle corruption, identify remaining gaps, and determine priority areas for future initiatives. nIt will also help the government craft future anti-corruption policies that are better designed, better targeted and thus more effective to tackle corruption in our society,” he said. Adeniran said the survey focused primarily on understanding the experiences of corruption by Nigerians, rather than perceived corruption whenever they encounter public officials.

According to him, two new vital modules on gender and disability have been introduced to the instrument in the third round of the survey. As the third aspect of the survey, following the 2017 and 2019 rounds, we are presented with an opportunity to conduct a trend analysis of corruption experienced by households in the country. Thus, this round will seek to gain a deeper understanding of the differential impact of corruption on marginalised or typically excluded groups such as women, youths, and persons with disabilities,” he said. Mr Musa Mohammed, Director of Demography and Household Statistics, NBS, said a test run survey was carried out in Uyo and Nasarawa as a build-up to the main survey.

Mohammed, who is also the Project Director, said the trainers would review the questionnaires to be used for the survey, adding that 30 per cent of the numerators for the exercise were from the NBS. “We will use this opportunity to build the capacity of the state Bureau of Statistics,” he said. He said the survey of 2017 and 2019 showed a decline in the prevalence of bribery from 32.3 per cent to 30.2 per cent adding that it’s however at variance with the report of Transparency International. The National Research Consultant, Prof. Adebisi Adeniran, said that the two previous surveys impacted on policy formulation in Nigeria and expects that the third round would look at trends and patterns of corruption in the country. Princess Chifiero, Project Officer, Anti-Corruption, UNODC, said the focus was on an experienced-based corruption survey shared by citizens themselves rather than on perception. She said the survey questionnaires were usually translated into the three Nigerian official languages and Pidgin English with 33,000 interviewers across the 36 states and the FCT. Chifiero said that bribery refusal, gender dimension, items to measure disability and items to measure the location of bribery were new additions to the survey. NAN reports that the main survey fieldwork would start in October through November 2023 with the ongoing training of the trainers which would be stepped down to the state level. (NAN)