… As ICPC recovers assets worth N82.5 billion in one year
A Coalition of civil society and media organizations involved in exposing corruption in Nigeria have called on President Muhammadu Buhari-led Federal Government to demonstrate courage and sincerity in the fight against corruption.
The organisations stated this at a special radio town hall meeting while commemorating the 2021 International Anti-Corruption Day, organized by five Civil Society Organizations in Abuja on Thursday, December 9, 2021.
Led by the Progressive Impact Organization for Community Development (PRIMORG), the other CSOs which include the African Center for Media & Information Literacy (AFRICMIL); the International Center for Investigative Reporting (ICIR); the Wole Soyinka Center for Investigative Journalism (WSCIJ), and Akin Fadeyi Foundation (AFF), called for serious prosecution and jailing of public servants that stole public funds.
In its contribution during the program, the Independent Corrupt Practices and Other Related Offences Commission (ICPC), said it recovered N82.5 million and assets in the last one year.
The ICPC which was represented by it Director, Public Enlightenment and Education, Mohammed Ashiru Baba while underscoring the importance of the international anti-corruption day, said that marking such an important day provides an opportunity for the global onslaught against corruption.
Reeling out ICPC’s achievement in the last year, Baba said the anti-corruption agency performed remarkably well in its mandate by noting that their Anti-Corruption and Transparency Unit (ACTU) domiciled in Federal Government Ministries, Departments, and Agencies (MDAs) is deterring public servants from corrupt acts.
According to him; “Between January and December last year, we recovered N82.5 billion worth of assets and also restrained N147 billion overhead cost from MDAs as well as the capital cost that would have been pocketed by MDAs.
“In our constituency and executive project tracking initiative, we tracked 546 projects across Nigeria executed by the legislators, initiated by the legislators, and of course supposed to be executed by the executives but they were either not handled well, shabbily done, or not even implemented at all and additional 269 executive projects.
“The fight against corruption as far as ICPC is concerned is comprehensive, top-bottom, bottom-up. We have a lot of forums targeted at people high up there. We call on Nigerians to be patient and contribute their quota in the fight against corruption by at least reporting corruption,” he said.
Also speaking, the Senior Program Officer at Wole Soyinka Center for Investigative Journalism (WSCIJ), Adeolu Adekola, said the government needs to ensure that systems put in place to fight corruption are turned into institutions just as he identified the lack of political will as a hindrance to fighting corruption.
He therefore called on the government to build a culture of speaking truth to power while decrying that investigative journalists in Nigeria are still facing backlash and adverse challenges for doing their job.
Similarly, the Senior Program Officer at African Center for Media & Information Literacy (AFRICMIL), Godwin Onyeacholem, urged President Buhari to demonstrate the courage to expose corruption, stressing that the current administration does not seem to have the political will to fight corruption.
While lamenting that corruption has permeated every facet of the public sector, Onyeacholem stressed that Nigeria needs to urgently do something about corruption or risk losing more of its scarce resources.
He further said; “If we don’t do something about corruption in the next 10 years, according to the 2015 Price Water Cooper (PWC) report, 30% of our GDP will be lost to corruption”.
Similarly, the National President, Foundation for Correction of Moral Decadence (FCMD), Dr Joseph Obiechie called on President Buhari to sit up and be more serious in tackling corruption, adding that Nigeria needs a sincere leader to fight corruption and therefore urged Buhari to synergize with state governors to re-orientate the minds of Nigerians.
A Journalist and representative of the International Center for Investigative Reporting (ICIR), Olugbenga Adanikin diffused allegations of imbalanced journalism, stressing that the ICIR focused on exposing corruption, criminal acts and ills in the society through investigative journalism in the last ten years.
This was just as the representative of Akin Fadeyi Foundation (AFF), Ose Enaholo said that the Foundation had before now developed an App to encourage citizens to report corruption.
He said; “The App (FlagIT) seeks to empower citizens to resist corruption in the public domain by providing a platform where non-corrupt experiences can be escalated and encouraged. On this platform, verified reports can also be made against corrupt practices and officials”.
In her own comment, the Communication & Media Officer of CLEEN Foundation, Anna White charged the government to show citizens example by holding themselves accountable, noting that Nigerians are mostly disconnected with the government’s anti-corruption initiatives due to trust deficit.
