He is vilified at home by the elite while the Senate has refused to confirm his appointment on two occasions. But the acting Chairman of the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC), Mr Ibrahim Magu, has received an endorsement from outside the country as 25 countries around the world have applauded his work in fighting corruption in Nigeria.
The endorsement is the outcome of an opinion poll conducted by United Kingdom -based Global Peace Movement International. It is instructive to note that the outcome of the poll is coming a week after the Transparency International (TI) released its latest transparency index in which Nigeria, for the first time in over a decade, moved up in the global anti corruption and transparency ranking.
This development, analysts insist, is directly related to the efforts of the EFCC to tackle corruption headlong and change the negative perception of the country. According to the report by TI, 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 released, Somalia was ranked the most corrupt country in the world for the 10th straight year. Speaking on the poll, the President General of the UK- based Global Peace Movement International, Dr Mike Uyi, explained that the decision to conduct the poll was based on the need to conduct an international survey to ascertain global opinion on the work of the EFCC, pointing out that Magu secured more than 96 per cent endorsement by respondents, with the United States of America, the United Kingdom, France, Germany, Russia, Canada, China and Belgium all commending the work of the EFCC in tackling graft. According to the report of the survey, the US leads the list of countries that endorsed Magu with 92 per cent responding in favour of the work Magu was doing, while 7 per cent responded in the negative.
The UK returned a 96 per cent affirmative and France 85. Other results of the poll showed 90 per cent Germans voting in favour of the acting EFCC chairman, while 9 per cent disapproved. Russia had 62 per cent in favour of Magu, while 29 per cent disapproved.
Greece was 73 per cent in favour, with 22 per cent going the other way. Malta had 80 per cent in favour with 17 per cent disapproval; Sweden, 85 per cent approval, and 7 per cent disapproval; Belgium, 85 approvals and 8 disapproval; Switzerland had 76 approval, and 11 per cent disapproval; Norway, 85 approval and 8 per cent against; Austria, 81 per cent approval and 6 per cent disapproval, while India had 53 per cent approval and 26 per cent against.
Others are Brazil with 65 per cent approval and 27 per cent disapproval, same with China having 65 per cent approval rating for the acting EFCC chairman while 22 per cent disapproved, Denmark had 84 per cent approval and 4 per cent disapproval, while Canada had a 91 per cent approval and 3 per cent disapproval.
Japan was 92 per cent approval and 3 disapproval, Luxembourg, 83 per cent approval and 4 disapproval, Mexico, 83 per cent approval and 7 disapproval, Portugal, 68 per cent and 22 per cent , South Korea, 74 per cent and 16 per cent , Principality of Monaco had 80 per cent approval and 11 per cent disapproval, The Netherlands, 82 per cent approval and 5 per cent disapproval, while Lithuania had a 72 approval and 13 per cent rating for the acting EFCC chairman.
Uyi also stated that the results of the survey on other public elected or appointed officials in Nigeria will soon be released to the public.
