Chairman of the Independent Corrupt Practices and Other Related Offences Commission (ICPC), Dr. Musa Adamu Aliyu SAN, has stated that the National Corruption Survey will help the government in the area of policy-making.
The ICPC Chairman made the statement recently when he played host to the Statistician-General and Chief Executive Officer (CEO) of the National Bureau of Statistics (NBS), Prince Adeyemi Adeniran, who was accompanied by Dr. Oliver Stolpe, Country Representative of the United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime in Nigeria.
Dr. Aliyu noted that data gathered from the survey will help the government see the challenges in the systems and come up with policies that will help in overcoming them.
He maintained that the survey further shows that Nigerians are willing to exhibit transparency and accountability in their dealings to minimize corruption, “with the issue of transparency and accountability, it is now showing that we are ready, open, to check ourselves to see what is going on, and channel our effort to check the problem of corruption” he said.
Speaking further, the ICPC Boss affirmed that the survey, alongside the campaigns by the Commission and Civil Society Organizations, has also helped in raising awareness among the public about corruption which is why many are resisting and saying no to corrupt practices.
He assured the guests that ICPC will continue to collaborate with them to tackle the menace of corruption and have a safe country.
Earlier in his opening remarks, Prince Adeniran revealed that they were at the Commission to hold talks concerning the planning and preparations for the launching of the third round of the Corruption Survey in Nigeria.
The CEO of the NBS also said that the first comprehensive survey of this nature was first conducted and launched in 2017, which was preceded by the second in 2019. He noted that presently, the third round of the survey which was conducted in 2023 has been compiled and will waiting to be launched soon.
He also revealed that new inventions were incorporated into the third round of the survey to improve the quality of the work.
He expressed gratitude to the Commission for its active participation and contribution to the process in the three rounds of the surveys so far conducted by the NBS.
The NBS Boss also commended ICPC, adding that results from the survey have revealed positive feedback from the people about the impact of the Commission innovations and reforms in the fight against corruption which he said are yielding the right results.
He however noted that other grey areas are stemming from the survey that would need to be looked into and improved upon.
Dr. Stolpe in his remarks commended Nigeria for being unique exemplary and diligent in doing the survey spanning over a decade. He noted that this was a unique opportunity for evidence-based interventions by engaging the stakeholders in that intervention.
He further said that the survey was part of the implementation of two important provisions of the United Nations Convention Against Corruption (UNCAC), Article 10 and Article 61 which are both reemphasizing the need for government to report on corruption and anti-corruption and use evidence to inform and shape policies.
He noted that one positive side of the survey indicated a reduction in readiness among Nigerians to take bribes.
The UNODC Country representative also noted that the e-governance policy has also played a key role in reducing corruption because of the lesser interface between government officials and the public where payments are being through bank accounts.
He also said that there was an increase from the survey in the rate at which people have been reporting incidences of corruption. He added that this was a result of the improvement in the way the public sectors handle complaints.