Support Fight against Corruption, ActionAid Urges Citizens
A Non-governmental Organisation (NGO), ActionAid Nigeria has urged citizens to participate more in the anti-corruption struggle in a bid to curb the negative trend.
The organisation, at a one-day programme titled ‘citizens’ dialogue on current trends of corruption in Nigeria designed under the project strengthening citizens resistance against prevalence of corruption’ (SCRAP-C) sought to engage citizens on the understanding of corruption trending in the country and how it can be curbed.
Speaking at an event held recently in Lagos, Executive Director of the African Network for Environment and Economic Justice (ANEEJ), David Ugolor stressed that corruption can be reduced through changing public attitude towards the mechanism in a shift from the supply approach.
Ugolor, who is also a senior adviser on corruption and governance, said to curb corruption in the country, government and anti-corruption agencies must be aware of how citizens see, react, respond and contribute to corruption, in order to know how to involve and enlighten them; rather than using enforcement.
According to the Campaign Manager, ActionAid Nigeria, Tunde Aremu, the SCRAP-C programme seeks to collaborate with communities, seek local government assistance and carry out technical projects on the needs of communities.
He said technology is used to escalate the issues and link their roles as civil society with the media most especially on rampant corruption in Nigeria from the elites to the grassroots.
“The SCRAP-C is a research and citizens’ oriented project that will employ social marketing tools, research, advocacy, citizens’ mobilisation, media engagement and capacity development to achieve programme aims, which is the desired behavioural change against corruption”, he added.
As part of its implementation, the citizens’ dialogue is a platform designed to interact with evidence of corruption in specific sectors like education, power, health and tax administration; to help suggest right policy recommendation to the government and encourage citizens to disapprove corrupt behaviour in the society.