The main challenge facing Nigeria’s anti-corruption campaign according to ICPC

The “biggest impediment” to the battle against corruption in Nigeria has been highlighted by the Independent Corrupt Practices and Other Related Offences Commission (ICPC).

The chairman of the ICPC, Prof. Bolaji Owasanoye, stated that “hypocrisy remained the greatest hurdle to the fight against graft” in the nation.

Owasanoye spoke on Thursday in Abuja at a workshop on the subject of “Corruption As Threat Security In Niger” that was put on by the House of Representatives Committee on Anti-Corruption in association with the Konrad Adenauer Stiftung (KAS).

He pointed out that while Nigeria has the laws and regulatory structures to handle the corruption concerns, hypocrisy continues to be a significant roadblock.

There are plenty of anti-corruption laws in place. Many legislation that are not part of the ICPC, EFCC, Police, NAPTIP, or NDLEA are not recognized as anti-corruption frameworks. Both the CBN and the Bureau of Public Procurement serve as anti-corruption gatekeepers. A gatekeeper for the fight against corruption is the Infrastructure Concession and Regulatory Commission, or ICRC. I could go on; if you added all of them up, you’d get something like 50.

“Most regulatory organizations have an anti-corruption function. We do not need anti-corruption agencies; rather, we lack integrity. Almost all professions are regulated, and any unethical behavior on the part of these professionals is already forbidden by their laws. Hypocrisy abounds among us, and we also lie to ourselves.

“It is crucial that we recognize that until we address these problems, we will continue to struggle with corruption, and that corruption undermines the ability of the state to ensure the welfare of its citizens in a variety of ways.

We must have a discussion about corruption because it is an existential problem for our nation. There is a problem I have with the ethical understanding that we share as a community, and I say this because it appears that some of the things that are killing us, some people do not recognize them as such, especially people who really do not want to know”.