Nigeria received another slap yesterday after it was downgraded by the World Justice Project (WJP) in its rule of law adherence, dropping one position to 97 out of 113 countries.
The WJP released its 2017/2018 Rule of Law Index, which measures rule of law adherence across 113 countries worldwide.
Reacting to the latest ranking Clifford Adesuwa, a legal practitioner blamed the way Nigeria has handled celebrated corruption cases.
The Washington-based organization’s report placed Nigeria behind other emerging market economies like Mexico (92), India (62) and Ghana (43).
Amongst the MINT countries which refer to the economies of Mexico, Indonesia, Nigeria, and Turkey, Nigeria ranked higher than Turkey (101) but was below Indonesia at 63 and Mexico at 95.
“Nigeria still practices a justice of patronage, where the rich are hardly convicted for crimes the justice system is heavily favouring the rich. The fight against corruption has been magnified, by this present regime; the rich don’t go to prison, and the continuous attack by law enforcement bodies especially Nigeria police and the Military must have also affected our ranking,” Chukwuemeka Eze, a lecturer at the faculty of Law, Nassarawa state University.
According to the report Africa’s largest economy has a declining rule of law indicated by its below average score of 0.53 – a one point drop from the 2016 edition of the report. Nigeria is grouped amongst lower income countries, it ranked 21 out of the 30 countries in this category – Georgia tops this group with a score of 0.61.
Nigeria’s drop in position and score can be attributed to a statistically significant decline in the country’s order and security indicator, as Nigeria was 18th out of 18 in “order and security”.
This can be linked to increases in Boko Haram activity, Fulani herdsmen massacres, extra-judicial killings and, detention without trial incidents.
The founder and CEO of WJP, Willaim H. Neukom is of the opinion that effective rule of law is the foundation for communities of equity, opportunity, and peace.
Regionally, Sub-Saharan Africa’s top performer is Ghana, supplanted South Africa from the 2016 ranking and took 43rd place globally.
Burkina Faso and Kenya saw the biggest improvement in rank among the 18 countries indexed in the region, climbing 9 and 5 spots respectively in the global rankings.
Madagascar experienced the biggest decline in rank, dropping eight spots. Overall, the region showed the most improvements in Absence of Corruption, with four countries experiencing upward trends in this factor and none showing downward trends.
Nigeria’s troubling areas remain its poor performance on corruption, lack of open government, fundamental rights, order and security and the strength of regulatory enforcement. These areas put Nigeria performance in the bottom 10 percent worldwide.
“No country has achieved a perfect realization of the rule of law,” William said.
The World Justice Project surveyed more than 110,000 household and 3,000 experts and aggregates data into 8 factors namely: constraints on government powers, absence of corruption, open government, fundamental rights, order and security, regulatory enforcement, civil justice and criminal justice.
Countries that earned the top spot in their regions include New Zealand, Georgia, Denmark, Uruguay, United Arab Emirates, Nepal and Ghana. Nordic countries dominated the rankings while Venezuela ranked bottom followed closely by Cambodia and Afghanistan.
The top three overall performers in the 2017-2018 WJP Rule of Law Index were Denmark (1), Norway (2), and Finland (3); the bottom three were Afghanistan (111), Cambodia (112), and Venezuela (113).
Globally, a majority of countries worldwide saw their scores decline since the publication of the last WJP Rule of Law Index (in October 2016) in the areas of human rights, checks on government powers, and civil and criminal justice.
The WJP Rule of Law Index is the world’s leading source for original data on the rule of law. Performance is measured using 44 indicators across eight primary rule of law factors, each of which is scored and ranked globally and against regional and income peers
The rule of law considered include; Constraints on Government Powers, Absence of Corruption, Open Government, Fundamental Rights, Order and Security, Regulatory Enforcement, Civil Justice, and Criminal Justice.
The World Justice Project (WJP) is an independent, multidisciplinary organization working to advance the rule of law worldwide. Effective rule of law reduces corruption, combats poverty and disease, and protects people from injustices large and small.
The WJP Rule of Law Index is intended to be a first step in setting benchmarks, informing reforms, stimulating programs, and deepening appreciation and understanding for the foundational importance of the rule of law.
ENDURANCE OKAFOR
