ICPC Chairman, Prof. Bolaji Owansanoye, has declared that effective enforcement of the law would tackle corruption.
He made the declaration in a message he sent to a one-day South-South stakeholders’ dialogue on the implementation of the National Ethics and Integrity Policy held on Tuesday in Uyo, Akwa Ibom State.
The policy was launched by President Muhammadu Buhari on Aug. 28, 2020.
“The National Ethics and Integrity Policy is a child of necessity. It was conceived and delivered out of the urgent need to resuscitate and rejuvenate our lost values of integrity and honesty as nation.
“The values of truthfulness, nationalism and respect for human dignity yesteryears of have been lost on us; that is why corruption has become so rampant in the society.
“It is in recognition of the pivotal role value re-orientation plays in the fight against corruption that ICPC adopted the National Ethics and Integrity Policy,’’ Owasanoye’s representative, Dr Grace Chinda, said.
Dr Chinda is a member of the South-South Board of the ICPC.
She said the ICPC adopted the policy in collaboration with the Office of the Secretary to the Government of the Federation and noted that truthfulness, nationalism and respect for humanity were parts of the Nigerian society of yesteryears.
She blamed corruption on the fading values of truthfulness, nationalism and respect for humanity.
She said Nigeria was not lacking in laws aimed at tackling corruption, but needed the implementation of effective enforcement based on well-designed and implementable standard operational procedures.
“It is a fact that Nigeria is not lacking in laws and policies aimed at curbing corruption and indiscipline. Perhaps what is lacking is implementation and effective enforcement based on well-designed and implementable standard operational procedures.
“This is the difference between the National Ethics and Integrity Policy and previous similar policies that have gone moribund and obsolete,’’ she said.
Dr Chinda expressed the hope that the policy would resuscitate the nation’s lost values of honesty and integrity.
In a message delivered earlier by the Akwa Ibom Director of the National Orientation Agency, Mr Enoh Uyoh, the Director-General of the agency, Dr Garba Abari, noted that for any nation to develop, there must be national values and ethics.
