The annual budget in India and Chinese investments in Pakistan were two major opportunities to reverse declining economic fortunes in South Asia. This week's articles explain how both fell short of e…

Released last month, the 2021 Corruption Perception Index (CPI) confirmed what many Nigerians know intuitively—that a steady stream of official antigraft rhetoric has hardly made a dent on what many agree is the most formidable perennial challenge to the country’s long-term stability. President Buhari’s sentiment to the effect that “if Nigeria does not kill corruption, then corruption will kill Nigeria,” is widely shared. Not only is Nigeria down five places from its 2020 ranking, its total score of twenty-four out of a maximum one hundred points represents a drop for the third successive year, making it West Africa’s second most corrupt country. Guinea-Bissau, still reeling from a failed military takeover in early February, holds the dubious honor of being the most corrupt.  

The unexpected pardon last week of two leading politicians convicted earlier on charges of corruption has brought renewed focus on Nigeria’s flailing anticorruption drive. Following a meeting of the country’s Council of State, Joshua Dariye and Jolly Nyame, governors respectively of the central and northeastern states of Plateau and Taraba from 1997 to 2007 were pardoned along with 157 other convicts.