It is no news that critiques from super power countries especially United States Of America continue to debase anti-corruption initiatives in Nigeria as not having the biting effect to minimize the biting effect of corruption. Be that as it may I can affirm that fight against corruption is not morbid in Nigeria as anti-corruption agencies, especially the Independent Corrupt Practices and other related offences Commission, are up in arms to battle the graft to zero level.
It is pertinent to stress that the United States Ambassador to Nigeria, Terence McCulley, was hasty in undermining the efforts by the government of Nigeria in fighting corruption while he overlooked the government’s resolve to set up anti-corruption agencies including the ICPC and the steps it has so far taken to wind down corrupt tendencies in the country.
I am particularly interested in the activities of ICPC in recent times and want to make it my reference point. The ICPC came to being in 2000 by an act of parliament with a mandate to combat corruption by processing petitions and reports on corruption with thorough investigations to authenticate claims and allusions to corrupt tendencies in the public and the private services. The essence is to have infallible proofs meant to aide the process of prosecution of offender.
In line with the acts establishing it, the ICPC also has the mandate to examine, review and enforce the correction of corruption prone systems and procedures of public bodies, with a view to eliminating corruption in public life, and to educate and enlighten the public and sensitize them against corruption while enlisting and fostering public support for the fight against corruption. And as a watcher from the civil society, ICPC has not deviated from the law that gave life to it.
Since inception, the ICPC has latched on to experiences in the war against corruption to readjust by reviewing its pattern of operations from time to time, while emerging with better ideas and result oriented approaches which seeks to tackle corruption from the roots as a preventive measure rather than focusing attention only on the surface with stigmatized arrests of offenders, which the Nigerian public seems to prefer.
The ICPC from time to time has committed itself to thorough investigations of cases of allegations leveled against some public officers and had set machinery in motion for the prosecution of many of those whose cases had been conclusively investigated.
The Commission for the sake of emphasis has started moving to the next level of the war against corruption by embarking on System Review mechanism through which public institutions such as government’s ministries, agencies, banking sector, tertiary institutions and others are having their systems reviewed on clockwise basis essentially to detect the established loopholes that have been encouraging corruption by officers and managers. The process has continued to record successes.
The ICPC in addition had initiated very strong partnership with different schools in Nigeria starting from the primary level to the tertiary. Students are being trained from time to time in the art of fight against corruption, while efforts are on all the same time to introduce subjects meant to awaken the consciousness of the students against the acts of corruption. The recent effort is the ongoing clampdown on illegal universities.
ICPC has also been fighting corruption in all departments of government and general public sector with the aide of anti-corruption volunteers, who are spread across the 36 states of the federation. The volunteers operate on the aegis of National Anti-corruption Volunteer Corps (NAVC) which has been active in reporting with promptness cases of corruption wherever they operate from. Much of anti-corruption enlightenment campaigns had taken place in Nigeria with active participation of the anti-corruption Volunteer Corps.
In addition, there has been synergy among the ICPC and other anti-corruption agencies including the Economic and financial Crimes Commission (EFCC), the Code of Conduct Bureau and the Nigerian Police, most especially in the area of comparing of notes while jointly reviewing strategies on the fight against corruption in the country.
More importantly, ICPC has not been engaged in the war against corruption in Nigeria all alone. It has in its team, a group of legal luminaries and other experts who consult for it on cases of corruption. Some Civil Society groups have also been assisting the commission in the fight against corruption. All these measures have succeeded in making the ICPC to be proactive while it responds rapidly to the challenges of tempering the rising wave of corruption in the country.
It is however apt to infer that the failure by the United States Ambassador to Nigeria in seeking audience with an agency like ICPC and other anti corruption agencies to obtain data and up-to-date information on the dimension of anti-corruption war in the country was the reason he made an error of judgment by viewing the activities of the Nigerian government and its agencies with a lens of corruption after all the US is not immune to debilitating effect of corruption.
The opinion held by the US government on issue of corruption in Nigeria was erroneously formed from sensational reports churned out from time to time by the Nigerian Media on corruption and not based on empirical evidence or registered data.
Well meaning Nigerians welcome good suggestions from the US and other countries on how to strengthen the fight against corruption, just as they acknowledge the cooperation from other international organisations on building of capacity and offer of logistics for the fight against corruption in the country.
Celsius Pam writes from Jos, Plateau State.
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