The Anti-Corruption Academy of Nigeria (ACAN), the Research and Training arm of ICPC, with support of the MacArthur Foundation, has developed Implementation Strategy for the National Ethics and Integrity Policy (NEIP).
The Federal Executive Council, in August 2020, approved the National Ethics and Integrity Policy (NEIP) as a response to the many damaging effects of corruption on both the public and private sectors, with a view to help restore and revitalize them. The NEIP was developed by the ICPC in collaboration with OSGF and NOA to enhance Nigeria’s Core Values in the society.
Using the behaviour change approach, the policy seeks to strengthen efforts at positive national transformation, saving the country from an erosion of ethics and collapse of value; and to help the country reach national development goals, among others.
The Policy recognises that in addition to abiding by laws and procedures, citizens and office holders must be guided by prescribed minimum standards of ethics and integrity.
In developing the implementation strategy, the Academy brought together about twenty-seven (27) experts and participants, including the Chairman of ICPC, ICPC staff who were involved in the making of the NEIP, distinguished political scientists, historians, sociologists, lawyers, media practitioners, administrators and teachers.
Based on the training deliverables and implementation strategies identified, ACAN again organised a training to build capacity of CBOs, CSOs, and FBOs, on application of the Strategies.
The two-day training which held from 18 – 19 April, 2023 at the Ibeto Hotels in Abuja,
was designed to help stakeholders implement the National Ethics and Integrity Policy (NEIP) with a view to stimulating desirable behaviour change. The trainees at this two-day programme were from a broad cross-section of the private sector. This engagement with private sector organisations was informed by the ICPC’s mandate which allows engendering integrity as a component of anti-corruption efforts in both public and private sectors. The experts that delivered this training included the Chairman of ICPC. About Seventy-three (73) participants from Seventy-three (73) CSOs, CBOs and FBOs, many of which were MacArthur Foundation Grantees, attended the training.
Speaking on the design of the programme and the need for capacity building for the stakeholders, the Chairman of ICPC Prof. Bolaji Owansanoye SAN, OFR said, “We are here to talk about ethics and Integrity which society many have failed to live up to for some reasons, but we should bear in mind that, the things we tolerate are the things that affects us the most”. He said that, “the things being discussed are grounded in our culture and traditional values and also embedded in our constitution and we are not trying to remove them”.
The Chairman, revealed that globally, law and order alone does not lead to total transformation or ending corruption neither does arrest and prosecution. He noted that law enforcement had gone beyond that to include checking the state of mind of the person. So designing a program around behavior change and engaging different stakeholders to achieve a common objective is in line ICPC’s strategy for ethical reorientation
According to the Provost of the Academy, Prof. Olatunde Babawale, “Bearing in mind that some of the participants may not be familiar with the NEIP, the two-day training was designed to be beneficial to all trainees regardless of the level of their prior understanding of the NEIP”. In that regard, the training was structured to cover: Fundamental Understanding of the NEIP and highlighting of some strategies for Implementation; Organised Private Sector and the NEIP; Role of Faith Based Organisations in Ethics and Integrity; Examining the Role of Community and Civil Society Organisations in Implementing Integrity; and the Role of Media in Entrenching Integrity in the Society.