NGO Unveils Anti-Corruption Report, Recommends Twin Strategy

• Step Up Nigeria releases anti-corruption report advocating comprehensive approach to tackle corruption
• Traditional enforcement strategies achieved convictions but lacked societal behavioral change
• Anti-corruption education complements sanction approach, leading to cost-effective and transformative outcomes, impacting over 50,000 students across 300 schools. Collaboration with ICPC for balanced approach

Step Up Nigeria, a non-governmental organization, has released its anti-corruption report, which aims to provide long-term solutions to the country’s corruption problem.

The report, Anti-Corruption Education in Nigeria: A Complementary or Alternative to Enforcement, released in Abuja, revealed that traditional enforcement strategies, despite obtaining convictions and arrests of perpetrators, have had little impact.

Step Up Nigeria’s Director of Programs, Samuel Asimi, stated that a more comprehensive approach combining preventive and punitive measures is required, as anti-corruption education complements the sanction approach.

Comparatively, while enforcement strategies led to tangible outcomes, they have not fostered societal behavioural change. In the last eight years, available data estimates show that the EFCC has one conviction for every 20 million naira budgeted by the commission, while our integrity approach focused on education has proven cost-effective.

This means that while enforcement offers immediate deterrence, it does not root out corruption nor foster behavioural changes compared to anti-corruption education. Implementing both approaches would lead to a more effective strategy that will equip future generations to fight corruption and actively contribute to a more transparent society, he emphasized.

Asimi stated that the organization has educated over 50,000 students across 300 schools in the country through transformative anti-corruption education and has catalyzed significant behavioral change.

Meanwhile, Azuka Ogugwa, the ICPC’s spokesperson, stated that working with Step Up provides the commission with a balanced approach to fighting corruption and getting children to absorb values from schools through technology in line with the commission’s national values curriculum.