The Foundation yesterday released its latest ranking of African countries per governance.

The ranking, which is based on previous years’ governance performance, are in the five critical areas of survey of Safety and Security; Rule of Law, Transparency and Corruption; Participation and Human Rights; Sustainable Economic Opportunity; and Human Development.

The report was released yesterday in Addis Ababa, the Ethiopian capital, by Dr. Mo Ibrahim, at a world press conference.

Nigeria’s ranking, which in Year 2000 when the first ranking engagement was engendered, was 39 out of the 48 countries on the continent of Africa. 

Interestingly, in the areas of Safety and Security; Rule of Law, Transparency and Corruption; Participation and Human Rights; Sustainable Economic Opportunity; and Human Development, Nigeria scored 63.8, 34.7, 47.3, 37.8, 42.5, respectively, averaging 45.2 on the Ibrahim Index of African governance.

In the Year 2002, Nigeria’s ranking dropped to 41 out of the 48 African countries but its position under the Safety and Security table was 61.7.

In 2005, it ranked 38, just as its security and safety position moved up slightly to 62.8.
In the latest report, Nigeria’s ranking is 39, while the Safety and Security position is 63.7.

According to a statement by Dr. Ibrahim, “The second Ibrahim Index of African Governance has found standards of governance and the health of civil society are improving in almost two-thirds of sub-Saharan countries.

This is vitally important. Without moving towards sound, honest, effective and responsive government, Africa simply can’t make the most of its enormous potential. We need to encourage this progress whenever we can and give citizens the information to help demand change where it is too slow.

“Each country is judged on five broad categories - safety and security; the rule of law, transparency and corruption; human development; participation and human rights; and sustainable economic opportunity.

“Importantly, the Ibrahim Index is not a snapshot of current developments but an accurate analysis of trends. So today’s Ibrahim Index uses authoritative data from 2006, enabling performance to be measured against the previous year.

This allows comparisons to be made now and in the future within individual countries and between them to produce a unique ranking system.

“It found welcome progress towards better standards of governance in 31 of the 48 countries of sub-Saharan Africa.  

“The Ibrahim Index reports welcome progress in other areas. No less than 32 countries showed progress on extending educational opportunity, which comes within the broader human development category.

Only five countries performed worse in this crucial area than in 2005. Nearly all countries saw improvements in access to technology, with 40 countries improving their scores for internet usage and 44 countries improving their scores for phone subscribers.

“For the second year in succession, the island nations of Mauritius, Seychelles and Cape Verde hold the top three places in the overall rankings.

They are followed by Botswana and South Africa which again score highly. But many other countries, including Nigeria, have reason for satisfaction. Nigeria has improved its score in this year’s Ibrahim Index, demonstrating progress in all five categories – particularly in rule of law, transparency and corruption where Nigeria’s score rose 3.7 points.

“It is not all good news. The index strives to give an accurate account of what is happening in Africa. While the overall picture is good, just under a third of countries recorded a deterioration in standards of governance.

Six countries find themselves in the bottom ten places of the Ibrahim Index for the second year running, with only two of them showing any improvement in their overall scores.

“Our continent is a much more complex, varied place than it is often painted. Africa has enormous potential. Its people are full of energy and talent. Economies are growing.

Democracy is spreading. By supporting the spread of good governance, we will help tackle problems and accelerate progress. That is the aim of the Index.”

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