MONDAY, September 5, 2016 was like any other working day of the week. But for the Southeast Zone employees of the National Agency for Food and Drug Administration and Control (NAFDAC), it was a day they set aside for sensitisation on anti-corruption war.
In a welcome remark, Mrs Joan Abaagu, from Reform Unit of the Agency, said corruption had become a cancerous growth in many facets of the nation’s life, stressing that NAFDAC had since embraced the Federal Government anti-corruption crusade.
Mrs Abaagu maintained that the workshop centered on anti-corruption, servicom and gender, adding that participants were drawn from the five states that make up Southeast geo-political zone as well as Legal and Food Safety and Applied Nutrition departments of the Agency. The eastern states are Abia, Anambra, Ebonyi, Enugu and Imo.
She said that the first day of the event would be on anti-corruption while the second and third days would be for servicom and gender equality respectively.
Maka Ndigbo observed that the first lecture delivered by Head of Department, Corruption Monitoring and Evaluation Department of ICPC, Akeem Lawal, was based on morality and ethics while the Director, Special Duties of NAFDAC, Dr Abubakar Jimoh, spoke on behalf of the Acting Director-General of the Regulatory body, Mrs Yetunde Oni.
Dr Jimoh called for high level of compliance to anti corruption guidelines, stressing that the Agency would continue to ensure that any incident of corrupt practice in the Agency was promptly dealt with.
“We expect that the participants will go back, workout all that they have learnt with a view to improving all the services within the system and removing all forms of corrupt practices to deliver the health of the nation”, he added.
Other issues discussed were ethics and compliance in workplace, elements and gamut of investigation and freedom of information as a weapon for combating corruption in the society.
The speakers agreed that corruption is an ill wind that blows no man any good, noting that all hands must be on deck to remove the deadly disease that had eaten deep into the fabric of the Nigeria nation.
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