At the occasion of the visit of the Country Representative of UNODC, Ms Christina Albertin to ICPC on May 9, 2016, she wondered among other things about the large number of Anti-Corruption Agencies in Nigeria.
In his response to this salient issue among others, the Chairman ICPC, Mr. Ekpo Nta, highlighted some provisions of the United Nations Convention Against Corruption (UNCAC) on emerging criminal tendencies and revealed that the Convention enjoined State parties to set up agencies to address such criminalities as they emerge. It was in response to the recommendations of the UNCAC that agencies like EFCC, NAPTIP, NDLEA were established. Also laws on Anti-Money Laundering and-Counter Terrorism Financing among others were passed and very recently, the Cyber Crime Council was constituted. All these agencies and laws were meant to address specific areas of criminality which is the standard recommended by UNCAC. Furthermore, while remarking on the mandate of the Commission, the Chairman noted that 60% of the mandate of the Commission was on prevention. Therefore, the Commission was more of a system and institutional change agent.
The Chairman further expounded that while not neglecting its enforcement mandate, the ICPC’s strategy is to build strong institutional capacity that will eliminate opportunities for corruption and corrupt practices. To be able to achieve that, ICPC is passionately effecting and injecting corruption preventive measures in both public and private systems. At regular intervals, ICPC interfaces with private and professional organisations/bodies to curb corruption in public and private sectors. This interface is yielding positive results.