The Akin Fadeyi Foundation (AFF), in collaboration with the Federal Road Safety Corps (FRSC), with support from the MacArthur Foundation, has kickstarted a series of anti-corruption sensitisation workshops across the FRSC training centres with the first set of the trainings launched at the FRSC Academy, Udi, Enugu State and the Marshal Inspectorate Training School, Owa-Alero, Delta State.
Over 500 cadets and trainees in both locations were given the opportunity to engage with fundamental information on anti-corruption, accountability and effective leadership as a crucial launching pad in their careers at the Corps.
According to the Executive Director of AFF, Mr Akin Fadeyi, “the project is in line with our behavioural change objectives aimed at an infusion of the core values of transparency and integrity driven service delivery in the newly recruited FRSC cadets and trainees. It also supports the organisation’s strategic agenda to deepen its work with the FRSC in a partnership that commenced in 2019 with the adoption of the FlagIt app by the corps.
“The collaborative goal of these series of training is to strengthen the internal capacity of FRSC officers to tackle micro-level and institutional corruption, promote accountability and ensure effective service delivery to road users. Information on the FlagIt app also featured prominently at the workshops as an effective deterrent to corruption and corrupt practices by pubic officers,” he said.
In his speech delivered by SRC Abah Charity Ojoma, the Corps Marshal of the Federal Road Safety Corps, Dr Boboye Oyeyemi said, “over the years, the leadership of the Corps has demonstrated zero tolerance for corruption in the system through rigorous policy formulation and implementation processes, dynamic and result oriented operational activities and above all, continuous monitoring, surveillance and evaluation procedures in line with the established processes, procedures and services.”
He added that as a swift reaction to the outcry on corrupt tendencies by some officers and men of the Corps detailed on patrol operations on specific locations, the Corps Marshal approached the Independent Corrupt Practices Commission (ICPC) and Department of State Service (DSS) for collaboration on a joint surveillance special operation targeted at arresting bad eggs who make a mockery of the hard-earned reputation of the Corps before the general public.
“The surveillance operation yielded positive results as over seventy (70) staff were arrested in two tactical swoops,” he added.
The Commandant at the Academy, Udi, Assistant Corps Marshal Kayode Olagungu, also used the opportunity to urge the newly recruited FRSC recruits to resist any form of temptation that could lead to corrupt behaviour and harm the corporate integrity of the Corps.
Standing on the Corps’ tripod of consultation, reward, and punishment, he reiterated that the Corps will not condone bribery and corruption from any of its personnel.
In addition, Mr Ademola Adigun one of Africa’s leading oil and gas policy experts and an anti-corruption champion gave a lecture on advancing the Anticorruption, Accountability, and Effective Leadership Agenda – Practical Ways of Engineering Change.
In his address, Mr Adigun told the recruits that the FRSC officials are the first and perhaps the only contact with the government many Nigerians will have, hence the needed change begins with them. He underscored that although eliminating corruption is hard, it can be reduced to the barest minimum by stopping the culture of silence.
The Akin Fadeyi Foundation also conducted a sensitisation workshop exercise at the Road Marshal Assistant Training School, Jos, Plateau State where the Commandant at the training school, Mr Danasabe Lawal Shehu, encouraged the trainees to practice self-discipline in the discharge of their duties.
He reminded them that the gains that are made from bribes are never enough and it is better not to start the habit while assuring the representative of the Akin Fadeyi Foundation that the message the Foundation brought to the trainees numbering about 1,300 on anti-corruption was well received.
He further promised the AFF that the trainees will put what they have learnt into practice.
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