Anti-corruption war must be won for Africa to grow — Buhari
President Muhammadu Buhari yesterday told the head of anti-graft agencies in Africa that the battle against corruption must be won for the advancement of the continent.
Declaring open a training workshop on Corruption Risk Assessment (CRA) for heads of anti-graft agencies in Africa, he said the fight against corruption as a battle for the souls of the different countries in the continent.
“The fight against corruption is a battle for the souls of our different countries and it is one that we must win. Since independence, our continent has suffered from the severe consequences of corruption and it is imperative that we take steps to reverse the trend,” he said.
The president said the CRA seeks to identify corruption-prone processes and procedures in organisations and recommend appropriate remedial steps.
“The methodology places a premium on prevention as an effective complement to enforcement in the war against corruption.
“In 2016, through support from the United Nations Development Programme, UNDP, the Anti-Corruption Academy of Nigeria acquired the capacity to conduct training on Corruption Risk Assessment. Since then, the Academy has conducted a number of these training.
“To showcase the growing appreciation of CRA as a tool for preventing corruption, the Anti-Corruption Academy of Nigeria has received a request for the training of Corruption Risk Assessors for ECOWAS countries from the ECOWAS Commission in Abuja,” he said.
He urged the participants to embrace CRA and also take steps to widen the knowledge and skills imparted by supporting the training of Risk Assessors for their countries.
“I would like here to point out that the training on CRA can only have meaning when the Risk Assessors are put to work,” he said.
In his address, the acting chairman of the Independent Corrupt Practices and other related offences Commission (ICPC), Dr. Musa Usman Abubakar, said the CRA was one of the preventive tools employed by the commission to plug systemic loopholes in the public sector.
“When loopholes and leakages in the systems are plugged, people will be denied access to public funds and as such will not have the opportunity to misappropriate it. This is against pursuing individuals after the deed is done, an action that drains a lot of resources admits challenges that create uncertainty of the outcomes.
“To this end, ICPC stands on the principle that an ounce of prevention is worth more than anyone of remedy,” he said.
A representative of the United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime, Vienna (UNODC), Oliver Stolpe said more than $1tr are given annually as bribes globally.
Stolpe while quoting the World Bank said, “businesses and individuals every year, give more than $1trn in bribes. Corruption begets more corruption and foster culture of impunity.”
He all stakeholders must work together to build a foundation of trust and of mutual accountability.
The 3 -day workshop holding at the State House Abuja drawn participants from over 40 African countries including Ghana, South Africa, Morocco, Benin, Togo, Liberia, South Sudan, Guinea Bissau among others.