The Peering Advocacy and Advancement Center in Africa (PAACA) along with other anti-corruption actors called on Nigerians to work together to fight corruption in the country.
Stakeholders called for anti-corruption engagement with workers and unions in Benin, Edo, to position unions as active drivers in the fight against corruption in Nigeria, organized by “Say No Campaign” with the support from the Mac Arthur Foundation.
PAACA Executive Director Ezenwa Nwagwu in a statement at the end of the engagement said the collaborative efforts of all stakeholders in the fight against corruption would reduce the incidence of corruption in the country.
Ezenwa, who is also the organizer of the “Say No Campaign” project, urged union members to use new approaches to engage government agencies and monitor the budget.
He said the call has become imperative because people shouldn’t keep doing things the same every time and expect different results.
He stressed that the perpetrators of corrupt practices were now dynamic in carrying out their nefarious activities and advised participants not to professionalize the work and the unions, whose members were hailed for being comrades without having an impact. .
“We must move away from the usual practice and equip ourselves with the necessary information and documents, to adopt other means of monitoring our budget and its execution at all levels of government.
“To meet the challenges of corruption and hold public office holders to account, it is necessary to have new thinking as the ignorance on the side of the citizens has worsened and encourages the spread of corruption in the system” , did he declare.
Mr. Eze Nwafor, who represented the Edo Command of the Independent Commission on Corrupt Practices and Other Related Offenses (ICPC), urged stakeholders to maintain a high standard of ethical and moral conduct in their engagement with government agencies.
“I have always maintained that for an effective fight against corruption, stakeholders must not only own the fight, but also have sound ethical and moral conduct, coupled with accountability and transparency in all their dealings with the public, ”he said.
The Chairman of the Commission for Combating Economic and Financial Crime (EFCC), Abdulrasheed Bawa, represented by Williams Oseghale, head of the public affairs department of the Benin area office, advised stakeholders to build on the gains from the dialogue .
He said it was because a better Nigeria would be appreciated by everyone.
In his remarks, the President of Nigeria Labor Congress (NLC) in Edo, Sunday Osanyande, expressed his willingness to partner with the Say No campaign project to strengthen accountability within the state.
Highlights of the events were the birth of a network of workers and unions against corruption with participants from the three senatorial districts of the state.
They expressed the willingness to use their influence to push for accountability in Edo through budget monitoring and monitoring abandoned projects.
The Nigerian News Agency (NAN) recalled that the Say No-Nigeria campaign, with the support of the Mac Arthur Foundation, held similar anti-corruption commitments with workers and unions in different geopolitical areas of the country.
It was in order to have citizens ready to lobby for positive change throughout the federation
