- The special adviser to the President on Justice Sector Reforms Juliet Ibekaku has explained why it difficult for Nigeria to fight corruption
- Ibekaku-Nwagwu said the absence of a common understanding of a the definition of corruption
- She said corruption in the Nigerian context is responsible for the delay in the development of a national anti-corruption strategy
The special adviser to the President on Justice Sector Reforms Juliet Ibekaku-Nwagwu has explained why it difficult for Nigeria to fight corruption.
Speaking at a workshop on anti-corruption, Ibekaku-Nwagwu said the absence of a common understanding of a the definition of corruption.
She said corruption in the Nigerian context is responsible for the delay in the development of a national anti-corruption strategy.
Ibekaku-Nwagwu said the absence of a common understanding of a the definition of corruption
Ibekaku-Nwagwu said the absence of such strategy is the major contributing factor encountered by the present administration in fighting corruption.
She noted that a national anti-corruption strategy is an important blueprint in the fight against corruption by any government.
Ibekaku-Nwagwu said: “Most of you know that in the past nine years, Nigeria has struggled to come up with a National Anti-Corruption Strategy. It is not because we don’t consider it important but because the Nigerians have left it for government."
“For too long, our civil societies have left it in the hands of government forgetting that government officials will do it at their own pace.
“When we came into office, I worked with the previous government starting from 2009; we started debating what the National Strategy on Anti-Corruption should look like. In 2010, we decided that we were going to first develop the institutional strategies," Ibekaku-Nwagwu said.
“And so, we started with the ICPC, the EFCC, and the CCB. We were able to get the anti-corruption strategies for those three core anti-corruption agencies well laid out.
READ ALSO: “If the north does not want restructuring, we will force it on them or break Nigeria into two”
“But we needed something to call a national effort around fighting corruption. Till today, we have not even achieved it.
“Just a few days ago, a book called “Collective Action on Corruption in Nigeria: A Social Norms Approach to Connecting Society and Institutions” was launched by the Royal Institute of International Affairs, London; and one of the findings reported in that book which I agree with is that Nigerians still do not have a common understanding of what corruption is. And, this is why it is so difficult to really tackle that problem.
PAY ATTENTION: Read the news on Nigeria’s #1 new app
“As you move from one society in the world to another, you find that the meaning of corruption changes, because the interpretation of corruption as given to us by the Europeans may not really fit into our society.
“To effectively fight corruption, we need to come to a common understanding of what corruption is based on our plurality and political-economy of Nigeria.
“Are we going to have a distinct interpretation before we come to a common understanding before we now define a strategy?" she asked.
Watch this NAIJ.com video of Nigerians analyzing corrupt politicians in the country below:
