The African Peer Review Mechanism (APRM) Team on a validation exercise of the Country Self-Assessment Report (CSAR) of Nigeria has described the country’s commitment to promoting good governance given the assessment report, as highly commendable.
The Lead Panelist on the APRM Team, his Excellency Dr. Abdulahim Sagir (Gambia), stated this at ICPC’s headquarters recently when the team lead by New Partnership for Africa’s Development (NEPAD) paid an interactive visit to the Commission.
According to him, Nigeria was the first country in the African sub region to commit to the Self-Assessment Review, and the process validation visit was to interrogate the document, speak with the stakeholders that contributed to the process of putting the document together, and seek clarifications in some grey areas.
The Secretary to the Commission, Prof. Musa Usman Abubakar, while welcoming members of the Team, affirmed the relationship that existed between the ICPC and NEPAD. He stated that the advent of APRM framework has enhanced government efforts to achieving good governance and development particularly in combating corruption, ensuring transparency and accountability in governance and public service delivery.
According to him, given ICPC’s three-pronged mandate, the Commission has focused on activities that strengthen government’s desire to eradicate corruption in the revenue and expenditure sides of governance; take development closer to the people by diminishing poverty and implementing sustainable development goals, escalate asset recovery and asset returns.
He also noted that ICPC’s development and launch of the National Ethics and Integrity Policy (NEIP), in the country, and the deployment of Ethics and Integrity Compliance Scorecard (EICS) to Ministries, Departments and Agencies (MDAs) has enabled the institutionalization of the self-assessment concept.
It would be recalled that the African Union (AU) review team is in Nigeria to further interrogate the country’s self-assessment record, following the approval of the reports by President Muhammadu Buhari for validation.
The APRM is an instrument voluntarily acceded to by AU member states as an African self-monitoring mechanism. It is also an innovation by African governments to deepen good governance and development.
The Team is expected to tour the six geopolitical zones of the country for the validation exercise.