The Independent Corrupt Practices and Other Related Offences Commission (ICPC) has called on Nigerians to rise up against the evil of corruption the way they rose up against the scourge of Ebola Virus Disease in order to eradicate it from the country.
This call was made by Mrs. Rasheedat A. Okoduwa, mni, Spokesperson of the Commission and Commissioner, Public Enlightenment Department, who represented the Chairman of ICPC, Mr. Ekpo Nta, at the Report Validation Meeting of the Corruption Risk Assessment (CRA) in the aviation sector in Lagos.
Mrs. Okoduwa, brimming with passion, noted, “Look at the response we had against Ebola as a nation, and look at our response to corruption, we saw Ebola as life-threatening and stopped shaking hands. If we could get down to that personal level, corruption is no less killing us, in fact it is worse because it affects all of us at once.
`If our response around it, is the way we responded to Ebola, not only would we check ourselves, we would be bold enough to speak up when other people are doing the wrong thing”.
Earlier, while giving the welcome remarks, she had said the essence of the meeting was to validate the draft report of the CRA conducted in two international airports namely:- Murtala Mohammed International Airport, Lagos and Nnamdi Azikwe International Airport, Abuja.
Mrs. Okoduwa recalled that ICPC had stated clearly that the CRA exercise was not a witch-hunting exercise, rather that it was a diagnostic tool deployed in collaboration with the management of target organizations to identify vulnerabilities in their operational systems and to recommend appropriate response strategies in order to mitigate the risks of corruption.
The meeting also featured goodwill messages by representatives of stakeholders in the aviation sector which included the Permanent Secretary, Federal Ministry of Transport, Mr. S B Simon; the Managing Directors of Federal Airports Authority of Nigeria (FAAN); Nigerian Civil Aviation Authority (NCAA) and National Airspace Management Agency (NAMA); and presentation of the draft report of the CRA by the project consultant, Mr. Emmanuel Akomaye.
In a short video clip message to mark the International Anti-Corruption Day, which was played at the event, the ICPC Chairman, Mr. Ekpo Nta urged Nigerians to “break the chain of corruption” for the benefit of ourselves and future generations. He added that citizens should Start the anti-corruption fight with themselves.
The Head of Corruption Monitoring and Evaluation Department, ICPC, Mr Akeem Lawal, fsi, while making the closing remarks of the meeting reinforced the view of the ICPC Chairman that the CRA exercise was not an indictment, but a prevention mechanism to check corruption-prone systems and was in fulfillment of Sections 6 b-d of the Corrupt Practices and Other Related Offences Act, 2000.