CISLAC, Others Call For States’ Anti-corruption Agencies

The Civil Society Legislative Advocacy Centre (CISLAC), has called on the Nigerian Governors Forum (NGF), to push for the creation of anti-corruption agencies across the 36 states of the federation.

At a two-day workshop for representatives of state-led anti-corruption agencies, the CISLAC executive director, Auwal Musa Rafsanjani, said creating anti-corruption agencies in states would help fight corruption effectively.

He said, “Corruption affects us all. It threatens sustainable economic development and ethical values and justice; it destabilises our society and endangers the rule of law.

“It is, therefore, imperative that anti-corruption efforts are replicated and implemented at the state level and beyond. Nigerians need to own the process.”

Rafsanjani who heads Transparency International in Nigeria, said the program was an opportunity to better understand the legal frameworks of existing state-level anti-corruption agencies which could serve as a guide to other states.

He said the existing state-level anti-corruption agencies will have an opportunity to pick out efforts to replicate, achievements and challenges that will be shared here by the federal anti-graft agencies.

He said, “We believe that it is therefore imperative for anti-corruption agencies as well as relevant stakeholders not to work in isolation but develop partnerships and collaborations aimed at providing synergy in our work which will make it more impactful and yield better results in the interest of Nigerians and Nigeria.”

Also, CISLAC’s senior legal officer, Bathsheba Tagwai, , stated that the workshop would explore the legal frameworks of existing agencies with a view to strengthen their capacity for institutionalising the anti-corruption efforts at the sub-national level.

The CISLAC legal officer also said the workshop was also an advocacy for replication of existing state-level anti-corruption agencies in other states in Nigeria.

According to her, following the example of Kano and Oyo states, more states are putting effort towards constituting independent anti-corruption commissions or their equivalent.

Similarly, the deputy director public prosecution at the Lagos State Ministry of Justice, Jonathan Ogunsanya said the state had enacted laws to establish its state anti-corruption agencies, adding that the process towards putting proper structure in place is in motion.

He, however, lamented that too much emphasis is given to the legal framework for anti-corruption saying that what was necessary at the moment was more of ethics and value re-orientation.

Also at the event, the chief legal officer of the Oyo Anti-Corruption agency, Olayanju Efo-Abasi,  stressed the need for states to develop their independent anti-corruption agencies, saying that doing so would strengthen the fight against corruption.

She, however, said that efforts must be put towards synergy and collaboration between agencies that tackle corruption issues.