Civil Society Organisatiions (CSOs) numbering over 30 have called on President Bola Ahmed Tinubu to declare his stand on the anti-corruption war.
The CSOs said throughout the period of campaigns, Tinubu did not make any categorical statement on his agenda on fight against corruption adding that tgr menace had eaten deep into the fabrics of the country.
The group insisted that the new president must declare where he stood in the fight against the scourge.
The 30 are: Accountability Lab, Nigeria; African Centre for Media & Information Literacy (AFRICMIL); Borno Coalition for Democracy and Progress (BOCODEP); BudgIT Foundation; Civil Society Legislative Advocacy Centre (CISLAC); Corporate Accountability and Public Participation Africa (CAPPA); HEDA Resource Centre; State of the Union (SOTU); Tax Justice and Governance Platform; Transition Monitoring Group (TMG); Women in Media Communication Initiative (WIM); Zero Corruption Coalition (ZCC); Alliance for Credible Elections (ACE); Centre Democracy and Development (CDD) and Centre for Information Technology and Development(CITAD), among others.
Speaking during a press conference to unvail their anti-corruption report, the leader of the groups and the head of the Civil Society Legislative Advocacy Centre (CISLAC), Transparency International (TI), and the Transition Monitoring Group (TMG), Awwal Musa Rafsanjani said Tinubu should declare a national conference on the war against corruption.
The CSOs drew the attention of Tinubu that they will not allow corruption to overrun the country adding that every aspect of the country should be freed of corruption.
“We must resist every tendency of corruption,” Rafsanjani said, adding that the Tinubu’s administration seems not to have anti-corruption fight as an agenda.
He insisted that given the effect of corruption which they are worried about, Tinubu must quickly move towards such a direction to tackle corruption.
“The president must declare a national confidence on the fight against corruption. The president should do that and follow it up with a clear action.
“If that does not happen, there is no way any serious investor will come and invest in the country. So, he should declare war against corruption and send a clear statement that Nigeria is not a corrupt country. Tinubu should revive the fight against corruption because no sacrifice is too much. We must fight corruption at institution level and also prevent it from happening,” Rafsanjani said.
The CSOs called for the passage of the Whistleblower and Witness Protection Bill into law, full implementation of the National Strategy on anti-corruption and the Freedom of Information Act, 2011 across all the states of the Federation including the FCT, among others.
“Investigation of all pubthis, aming others officers and politically exposed persons (PEP) named in the Pandora papers, Panama Papers, Paradise Papers, Genko scandal and FinCEN Files while those found guilty be made to face the full wrath of the law as a deterrent to others.
“Reform of financial institutions such as CBN and commercial banks, FIRS, Nigerian Ports Authority and Maritime sector. These have become money laundering gateways.
“Take concrete steps to foster great judicial independence by institutionalizing real financial autonomy for the judiciary, which currently depends on disbursement that are often delayed by the executive.”Demand that anti-corruption and security agencies demonstrate greater transparency with regards to their budgets and expenditures, developing strategic capacity-building spending plans. To this end, more respected technocrats, jurists and civil society figures should be appointed to serve on the boards of the anti-corruption agencies and reduce the de facto control board members have over staffing and operational decisions and provide a well-designed and operational system of asset declaration that can be an important element in the overall anti-corruption and integrity system through “asset declaration available for public scrutiny”. Other recommendations are: “Prioritize the need to ensure that information and data in the oil and gas sector that would help the Presidential Steering Committee (PSC), to effectively implement and operationalize the PIA is provided and there is proper surveillance (land-based, and aerial satellite photography and geophones trenched pipelines) updating its pipeline networks to minimize vandalism and crude oil theft. Furthermore, the success of oil and gas industrial parks in the Niger Delta which will ensure the development of oil and gas infrastructure in the oil-producing states and create employment for the populace in the Niger Delta region.”Streamline the conduct of anti-corruption agencies in relation to seizure and recovery of looted properties and proceeds of looting and ensure transparency in how they account for this. “Engage state government to align with all anti-corruption strategies and initiatives at the federal level and in particular, get all those states that have not domesticated the Freedom of Information Act to do so,”Improve and strengthen the autonomy, independence and institutional capacity of state-level anti-corrupting agencies and create better synergy between them and their counter-parts at the federal level.”We urge the new administration not to appoint any individual with allegations of corruption against him or her into any public office as this will continue to taint the image of the country.”For genuinely confidential procurements in the Defense Sector, we recommend that a separate legal procedure should be designed allowing for monitoring by a confidential Senate Committee and a Unit with a suitable security clearance within the Bureau for Public Procurement. Also, there should be constructive working relationship among executive, legislative and civil society to publish guidelines that allow for proper scrutiny of how security votes are budgeted, spent and monitored.”We further recommend that Public Procurement Council be formed for the anti-corruption agencies and the council should embark on information sharing on procurement.”We recommend support to the CCB on the digitalization of the asset declaration of public officers.”We recommend that NASS fasttracks the process of reviewing the obsolete current audit act to empower the Office of the Auditor General of the Federation in discharging his duty.”
