Nigeria: Corruption worsening in Nigeria – TI

Transparency International has ranked Nigeria as the 144th most corrupt among the 177 countries studied in the world.

In 2012, Nigeria was ranked as the 124th most corrupt nation among the less than 170 countries studied.

Afghanistan, North Korea and Somalia are seen as the world's most corrupt countries while Denmark and New Zealand are nearly squeaky-clean, it said in a survey Tuesday.

The survey gave Nigeria as an example of countries where oil resources were only available to a very small elite.

According to the report by Agence France Press, the organisation said almost 70 percent of nations are thought to have a "serious problem" with public servants on the take, and none of the 177 countries surveyed this year got a perfect score.

Transparency International's annual list is the most widely used indicator of corruption in political parties, police, justice systems and civil services, a scourge which undermines development and the fight against poverty.

"Corruption hurts the poor most.  That's what you see when you look at the countries at the bottom. Within those countries, it's also poor people who get hurt the most. These countries will never get out of the poverty trap if they don't tackle corruption," the lead researcher Finn Heinrich said in an interview with AFP.

TI said the war-torn Syria as well as Libya and Mali, which have also faced major military conflict in recent years, were among countries that slipped the most on the group's 2013 Corruption Perceptions Index.

"Corruption is very much linked to countries that fall apart, as you see in Libya, Syria, two of the countries that deteriorated the most.

"If you look at the bottom of the list, we also have Somalia there. These are not countries where the government is functioning effectively, and people have to take all means in order to get by, to get services, to get food, to survive", said Heinrich.

Efforts to get the reaction of President Goodluck Jonathan's Special Adviser on Media, Dr. Reuben Abati, had not succeeded at the time of sending this report.