A coalition of civil societies led by the Youth Alive Foundation (YAF) in collaboration with the Independent Corrupt Practices and Other Related Offences Commission (ICPC) on Tuesday in Abuja hosted a Stakeholders’ Summit on Corruption in Nigeria.
Dr Udy Okon, YAF’s Executive Director, who spoke with newsmen at the sidelines of the event, said that foreign partners such as Department for International Development (DFID) participated in the summit.
The theme of the summit is “Towards Evidence Based Intervention for Collective Impact.’’
Okon said that questions such as what the stakeholders knew about corruption; what was the current state of corruption in Nigeria and what civil societies, government and stakeholders were doing about it would be asked.
“The summit is convened by ICPC and YAF; the purpose is to review evidence and status of corruption in Nigeria by multiple stakeholders, actors from civil societies, law enforcement agencies, research institutions and international agencies.
“Everybody is working on corruption but there is no coordination of what we are doing; the idea of the summit is for us to come together, review evidence and actually discuss the implication of the all the evidence.
“More so, to direct our interventions in a way that addresses some of the recommendations and findings.
“We hope that there will be a more coordinated action in the fight against corruption, synergy between government agencies and civil societies, a more strengthened and deeper partnership to win the fight against corruption.
On his part, Mr Mohammed Baba, Commissioner for Education, ICPC, said that the summit was aimed at strengthening the participation of the youths in governance particularly in the fight against corruption.
According to him, it is geared at inculcating moral values in the youth right from their formative age and engage them actively and efficiently in the fight against corruption.
“By the time we carry our youth outreaches to a logical conclusion, which constitutes 75 percent of the population, we would have achieved zero tolerance for corruption,’’ he said.
On his part, Mr Mohammed Baba, Commissioner Education, ICPC, said that ICPC’s functions transcended beyond investigating people, arresting them and prosecuting them. He added that ICPC’s functions encompassed prevention of corruption, public education and enlightenment.
Baba said that the law establishing ICPC emphasised more on educating the people and preventing corruption.
In her presentation, Mrs Azuka Ogugua, Assistant Director, Education Department, ICPC, said that it was unfortunate that corruption existed among the youths who were the most affected by corruption.
She listed some corrupt practices among youths as falsification of certificates, examination malpractice, lack of honesty among others.
Ogugua said that the commission laid much emphasis on the education sector where cases of forged O’level certificates, forged admission letters, connivance with staff, sexual harassment and inducement were rampart.
An activist, Charles Oputa, popularly called Charley Boy, said there was need for the youths to realise that their future was at stake.
He said that the fight against corruption was not a fight for the people in government but for the electorate.
According to him, something drastic must be done to sanitize the system.