The outgoing Chairman of the Independent Corrupt Practices and Other Related Offences Commission (ICPC), Professor Bolaji Owasanoye (SAN), has blamed accountability deficit by top civil servants, politicians and others for the high level of corruption, bedeviling the country.
He also explained how lack of administrative experience led some heads of agencies, particularly academics into culpability in acts of corruption.
Speaking at a forum in Abuja tagged ‘Behavioural Change and Conference Exhibition 2023’ organised by the Akin Fadeyi Foundation (AFF) a not-for-profit organisation that employs communications, media, and technology to combat corruption and promote social change in Nigeria, the anti-corruption czar, however, faulted the hasty generalisation that casts aspersion on all Nigerians as corrupt.
Owasanoye recalled that those in the academics who headed one agency or another became ICPC’s suspects within one year as a result of one infraction or the other.
“And you could see that many of them, walking blind, lacked administrative experience either because they were misled or because they have not read circulars and guidelines that say you can do this, you can’t do that.
“Imagine somebody who hitherto held a global reputation, who won consultancy, earns $20,000, why does he want to come and steal money from an MDA? Except somebody has set a banana peel for him to enable them to do what they want to do and they need to put him in that trap, if he refuses, then they will orchestrate a petition to ICPC, and EFCC, then the man will come and they embarrass him,” Owasanoye said.
He added that most of the people who indulged in such acts were faceless civil servants who misled the heads of agencies in the first place.
The outgoing ICPC Boss stated that not all Nigerians are corrupt, explaining that such default mindset by a generality of people that all Nigerians are corrupt are being challenged in the light of the traditional anti-corruption interventions in Nigeria and the recent efforts towards expanding the focus of anti-corruption interventions to include the behavioural change approach.
“From my experience in leading the anti-corruption fight at PACAC (Presidential Advisory Committee Against Corruption) and the ICPC, I can tell you categorically that not all Nigerians are corrupt,” Owasanoye said.
He shared an experience with a head of an agency who wanted to embark on an international trip and was mischievously misled by the agency that his estacode was $900 instead of the approved $600, explaining that but for circumspection and refusal by the official, he would have walked into a boobytrap of official abuse culminating in corruption.
Also speaking, the Country Director, MacArthur Foundation, Dr Kole Shettima, whose Foundation was a co-partner to the event, wondered why Nigerians politicians, who were to be self-reformed to work for national interest, pursued personal interests that could harm national interests.
He said his office discovered Behavioural Change in the anti-corruption advocacy of Akin Fadeyi Foundation through the instruments of Arts and Drama and therefore expanded the scope of MacArthur Foundation’s anti-corruption efforts to include such initiative.
He said Behavioural Change was pivotal to the strategic approach to norm culture change and fight against corruption.
Fielding questions from journalists, the convener of the forum and the Founder of the Akin Fadeyi Foundation, Mr Akin Fadeyi said, “This event was not just to showcase our work, it was strategic to reevaluating our scorecards and redesign more robust templates aimed at scaling up our milestones for measurable impact. We are excited this event was successful and was well attended by experts and the international development community.
“It is imperative to convey our gratitude to the Nigerian Media across-board especially, as they have been the sustained strategic partners through which our efforts are conveyed to the larger populace.”
Fadeyi, who noted that the behavioural cohorts consist of about 18 CSOs, said his organisation has been working as partners and Grantees of the MacArthur Foundation and have been leveraging one another’s expertise in addressing the cause of Behavioral Change as a remedy against corruption and other social vices undermining societal development.
“This exhibition is a convergence of ideas and a unifying front consisting of our Partners like the StepUp Nigeria, ACAN, NISER, Lux Terra Foundation, Accountability Lab etc. We have been re-energised in our irrevocable commitment to keep employing Behavioral Change and tech-driven approaches in breaking down barriers against our nation’s preponderant decadence”.
READ ALSO FROM NIGERIAN TRIBUNE
and then