Independent Corrupt Practices and Other Related Offences Commission (ICPC)’s Chairman, Mr. Ekpo Nta, has declared that the Federal Government is on course to winning the fight against corruption.
Nta who appeared on the Tuesday Live programme of the Nigerian Television Authority (NTA) recently, noted that the anti-corruption fight of the government was not only succeeding in the areas of investigation and enforcement but that the Federal Government has also recorded great success in the areas of ethical value re-orientation.
He said, “We have been focusing on the fight against corruption on the basis of enforcement and the country had come to equate the fight with investigation and enforcement. Of our own volition, we decided to join ethics and value re-orientation which must form the substance upon which we build any anti-corruption fight. In so short a time … we are winning the war against corruption and we must sustain it, because we are getting back on track.”
The Chairman also lauded the Federal Government for the funds that were made available to the Commission, noting that ICPC had been enabled to carry out several of its financial obligations besides the normal payment of staff salaries.
He also praised the civil society organizations for their support to the Commission over the years saying, “We have enjoyed lots of support from the citizens especially the civil society organisations and as for funding, we have moved away from just salaries to even capital projects.”
The ICPC boss, who also called for the need to instill ethical values in Nigerian families as bedrock to attaining a corruption-free nation in the nearest future, lamented that children were no more being disciplined by the society as it used to be in the past.
He decried situations where parents attack school authorities for correcting an errant child, adding that such actions would only allow unethical values to grow and fester in the lives of the children even when they become adults.