Chairman of the Independent Corrupt Practices and Other Related Offences Commission (ICPC), Barrister Nta Ekpo, has told the international community that the agency has adopted new strategies against corruption because the former method was not working.
Nta Ekpo, who participated in a recent talk shop on Africa at the New York University, African House, urged foreign countries and organisations to support the anti-graft instruments introduced by the United Nations (UN) to bring corruption to an end across the globe.
In a statement made available to LEADERSHIP yesterday in Abuja by the Media Consultant to the ICPC, Mr.Olamiti, the commission’s boss was quoted as saying that he had shifted his approach to the fight against corruption from the fire brigade style to the next generation of Nigerians (bottom up), which involves the spirit of anti-corruption being inculcated in children and the youths “because they have more energy to sustain the war against the vice.”
He also told the audience that “my dinner speech is meant to aid digestion because I am not here to discuss the usual rehash of statistics of stolen wealth or run down my country. I accepted this dinner date because of one simple fact that underscores my approach to dealing with the anti-corruption war in Nigeria.”
The ICPC boss further explained that he also opted for the new approach because the old order in Nigeria, was sensational and based on the arrest of suspected big time corrupt persons apparently to please angry Nigerians.
Ekpo said while under the old regime the process of trial of offenders was usually a media affair, his style focuses on primary, secondary and tertiary institutions because they are good “grounds for recruiting new soldiers for the anti-graft campaign,” adding that the “old guards were either battle weary or compromised.”
He said, “I have a firm belief that the universities in Nigeria hold the key to stemming corruption. We must begin to address corruption with respect and assign serious academic attention to it. No Nigerian university is running any degree programme in Corruption Studies. My commission has in collaboration with the Nigerian Educational Research Council (NERDC) introduced Ethical Studies into the curricula of our primary and secondary schools.”
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