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This was announced by Mohammed Adoke, the Justice Minister.
The Ministry of Justice has produced a draft National Anti-Corruption Strategy (NACS) to fight corruption in the country, the Attorney-General of the Federation, Mohammed Adoke, has said.
Mr. Adoke said this while declaring open a one-day validation workshop on the NACS on Thursday in Abuja.
He said the different anti-corruption agencies in the country had been doing a commendable job of fighting corruption, but Nigeria’s treaty obligations required her to have a NACS that is holistic and inclusive.
“Nigeria is signatory to the UN Convention against Corruption and is obliged to have a National Anti Corruption Strategy that is comprehensive and all inclusive,’’ he said.
“In order to achieve this, the Federal Ministry of Justice in the discharge of its mandate as a focal ministry under the convention, set up an Inter-Agency Task Team to develop a National Anti-Corruption Strategy.
“The strategy document is developed around three central themes of strengthening the legal and institutional framework established to prevent and combat corruption, improving the environment for transparency, accountability and integrity as well as sustaining corruption control,” he said.
He said the ministry worked assiduously with the Inter-Agency Task Team, civil society and their development partners to articulate the strategy with appropriate action plans for all the agencies involved.
Mr. Adoke said the document was developed around the three themes to ensure practical approach in the fight against corruption, and to implement a broad framework that would harness the energies of all sectors involved in the fight against corruption.
He said the strategy, to be implemented over a period of five years, would promote tangible benefits for integrity as well as recommend stiff sanctions for corruption.
According to him, the document reflects the aspiration of government, anti-corruption agencies and other major stakeholders for an effective and efficient fight against corruption.
“The strategy is planned to intervene at the policy, technical and institutional levels as well as provide a means for coordination and harmonisation of the efforts of government.
“The strategy also mirrors the aspiration of the government and the anti-corruption stakeholders for far-reaching changes in attitudes, policies, institutional structures and framework for fighting corruption,’’ he said.
Also speaking, the Solicitor-General of the Federation, Abdullahi Yola, said the workshop was organised against the backdrop of the need for synergy in the enforcement of anti-corruption laws and the need to enshrine same in public service.
Mr. Yola called on participants in the workshop to make meaningful contributions to further enrich the document for effective implementation.
“The Federal Government accords this draft anti-corruption policy high priority to bring about the required change in the quality of governance and the effectiveness of the anti-corruption campaign.
“It is our expectation that the required inputs from all the stakeholders at the workshop will further help to enrich the final policy document for effective and inclusive implementation,” he said.
(NAN)
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