THE John D and Catherine T. Mac Arthur Foundation in its efforts to help fight corruption in the country has given a sum of $1,800,000 to Mambayya House Anti-Corruption Project to assist the association in the fight against corruption.
Disclosing this on Wednesday while addressing a press conference in Kano, Professor Ismaila M.Zango, Director, Mac Arthur Foundation Project, said the grant was aimed at helping the masses see the need to end corruption in all its ramifications.
According to him, following the successful completion of the first phase of the project from 2018-2020 with $1,000,000, Mambayya House was re-granted another $800,000 to implement the second phase of the project for another three years from 2021 to 2024.
He said “It is our pleasure to have invited you here for this press briefing which is aimed at disseminating the story and result of our three years of Anti-Corruption project titled “Promoting Accountability and Anti-Corruption through Behaviour Change”.”
Zango disclosed that the project is aimed at mobilising and educating citizens to actively engage in activities that will strengthen social accountability and improve service delivery in local communities.
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He noted that in the long run, the ultimate goal of this project is to establish a robust self-sustaining accountability ecosystem in Nigeria which he said, could overtime, embolden citizens to take action to prevent, reject and prosecute corruption, as well improve transparency and accountability among public officials thereby reducing corruption to the barest minimum in the country.
He further disclosed that in the past three years, the project has covered the 19 states of northern Nigeria and some selected states in the South-West, South-South and Southeast zones including Lagos, Rivers, Enugu, Ebonyi and Anambra.
“In all the states, we interact and interface with different stakeholders such as state and local government representatives, traditional rulers, religious groups, academia and grassroots for deeper discussion concerning the negative impact of corruption.
“This gave us the opportunity to collect relevant data that could enrich our subsequent intervention and programmes as a research centre.”
He added that through the project “we equipped and empowered both Muslim and Christian clerics with requisite information on the dangers of corruption and how to speak against it using the divine and the influence they have on their congregation.”