Director General of the Nigerian Institute of Advanced Legal Studies (NIALS), Professor Muhammed Ladan, has stated that the National Assembly requires code of conduct to contain corruption and instill integrity in members of the legislature.
He dropped this suggestion Thursday at an interactive session organised by the Civil Society Legislative Advocacy Coalition (CISLAC) and MacArthur Foundation in conjunction with the House of Representatives committee on ethics and privileges, on the code of conduct for legislators.
Making presentation on the topic; “Overview of the various legislative code of conduct and the need to harmonise for best practice”, the DG called for the harmonisation of the code of ethics produced by the institute and the code of conduct provided by both chambers of the National Assembly.
“Ethical integrity is doing the right thing at all times. Legislators as representatives of the people, the issue of integrity must start with them. And to instill integrity, you must have a set of guidelines and standards.
“We need code of ethics for behavioural change among lawmakers. A code of conduct will enable members to uphold themselves”, he stated, adding that the parliament was being exposed to ridicule by some chief executives of MDAs due to the behaviour of some legislators.
In his remarks earlier, the executive director, CISLAC, Auwal Ibrahim Musa, lamented that corruption has spread astronomically into all spheres of life in Nigeria leading to a downturn of the economy. He added that CISLAC, being the national chapter of the Transparency International (TI) was committed to assisting the committees in the National Assembly to fight corruption.
