The Centre for Media, Policy, and Accountability (CMPA) has linked the growing public trust deficit in the country’s anti-graft agencies to a gap in understanding of anti-corruption performance between anti-corruption agencies.
CMPA Executive Director, Dr Suleiman A. Suleiman, who offered insight into most of the reasons on Wednesday in Abuja at a one-day National Policy Dialogue on Anti-Corruption, regretted that the development was responsible for the country’s poor rating in global indices of corruption, such as the Corruption Perception Index by Transparency International (TI).
According to Suleiman, it was for this reason the CMPA decided to embark on the Nigeria Anti-Corruption Performance Public Reporting (NAPPR) project to strengthen how civil society organisations and the media monitor and report the performance of the anti-corruption agencies, particularly the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC), the Independent Corrupt Practices and Other Related Offences Commission (ICPC) and the Code of Conduct Bureau (CCB).
He explained: “The NAPPR project is based on the observation that while Nigerian anti-corruption agencies believe they are doing relatively well in fighting corruption in the country, civil society organizations, the media, and the Nigerian public tend to believe that they are doing almost nothing.
“This gap in understanding of anti-corruption performance between anti-corruption agencies on the one hand, and civil society, media, and the public on the other hand, inevitably influences the rating of Nigeria in global indices of corruption, such as the Corruption Perception Index by Transparency International.”
He maintained that the essence of the dialogue is to guide anti-corruption performance in Nigeria, regretting that the Nigerian public always suffers the impression that the anti-corruption agencies are not doing anything, hence the need to bridge the gap.
He added, “Let me give an example. Just yesterday, we learned in the news that the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC), through the courts, has recovered an estate of over 700 housing units back to the government.
“No doubt, this is a massive achievement for anti-corruption in Nigeria. And by reporting it in the news, Nigerians will get to know about it, and about the good efforts of our anti-corruption agencies, at least for a while.
“At the same time, however, this very news story is also evidence that helps to cement the perception that there is still plenty of corruption in Nigeria, which, unfortunately, also means that the anti-corruption agencies are not doing enough.”
On his part, Mr. Kole Shettima, Director of MacArthur Foundation, West Africa, and keynote speaker at the event, highlighted the four elements and agenda the Foundation was pursuing to engender accountability and transparency in the bid to stem corruption vices.
He listed the areas to include: support for the independence of the media, the need to address a behavioural change approach to fighting corruption, strengthening of the criminal justice system, and support for civil society organisations.
