ActionAid Nigeria has called on the Office of the Attorney General and Minister of Justice to enforce the Freedom of Information Act across all Ministries, Departments, and Agencies to curb corruption in the country.
ActionAid also recommended that the federal government should ensure that all anti-corruption agencies are autonomous with functional boards for effective oversights and given all the powers and resources needed to discharge their mandates.
In a press release issued in Abuja by the Communication Coordinator, ActionAid Nigeria, Lola Ayanda lamented that Nigeria has struggled to lift itself out of the poverty trap among other countries in the world, especially in the sub-Sahara Africa.
She said though, many experts have argued that the paradox of plenty and poverty co-habiting in Nigeria is a manifestation of the resource curse, all the existing policy recommendations point to the same direction which is about having good leadership that can harness the huge resources to the advantage of the citizens in terms of providing basic social infrastructure that can drive economic growth and thereby resulting in poverty reduction.
She said: “Unfortunately, these policy recommendations and directions have been marred first and foremost by long rule of the military entrenched in corruption, and continued corruption of civil rule even in democracy.
“It appears corruption has taken deeper root now manifesting strongly in prebendalism, cronyism, contract splitting, diversion of funds, mismanagement, and misappropriation of scarce resources.
On the responsibility of the National Assembly, ActionAid also said that the anti-corruption agencies should be streamlined, reformed and strengthened in order to avoid administrative conflicts and unhealthy rivalry with similar agencies.
She said they should also be made to be corruption preventive oriented, cost-effective; free from the clutch of the executive arm and other forms of control; and facilitate optimal performance.
She called for: “Reforming the anti-corruption agencies to weed-out non-performing staff and elements that frustrate and weaken the internal operations through their resistance to change.
“Adequately funding the agencies, including designing and employing modern Information, Communication & Technological systems to enable them to conduct their affairs in a transparent and professional manner”.
She said process of monitoring for corruption should be instituted to facilitate the taking of proactive measures, rather than wait for people to make complaints.
“The Code of Conduct Bureau should ensure the compliance of the law with respect to the declaration of assets by public officials and promptly prosecute defaulters.
“There is need for the anti-corruption agencies to mobilise various stakeholders around a strategic programme of fighting corruption in the country,” she said.
