Freedom in the World Scores: Nigeria’s political rights rating has improved

In the 2017 Freedom in the World evaluation, Nigeria’s political rights rating improved to 3 as against last year's 4.

This improvement has been attributed to increased transparency under the President Muhammadu Buhari-led administration and military gains against the dreaded Boko Haram sect that led to a significant reduction in the group’s ability to alter the religious and ethnic composition of the northeast.

Freedom in the World is an annual survey and report by a U.S.-based non-governmental organization Freedom House. It assesses the degree of political rights and civil liberties in every nation and significant related and disputed territories around the world.

Nigeria’s political rights rating improved from 4 to 3

This year’s Freedom in the World survey evaluates the state of freedom in 195 countries and 14 territories.

The assessment is based on a scale of 1 to 7 with one being most free and seven being least free. Each country and territory is assigned between 0 and 4 points on a series of 25 indicators, for an aggregate score of up to 100. These scores are used to determine two numerical ratings, for political rights and civil liberties. A country or territory’s political rights and civil liberties ratings then determine whether it has an overall status of Free, Partly Free, or Not Free.

In the ratings for 2016 below, Nigeria’s political rights rating was 4 while that of civil liberties is 5. This year, while political rights improved, civil liberties remained the same.

Thanks to Buhari and Nigerian troops for this achievement.