Corruption is one of the major problems Nigeria is grappling with. It poses critical challenges to the economic and social development of the country.  Corruption not only diverts resources from legitimate causes, beneficial to the society at large, but denies millions of people their fundamental freedoms and human rights. The challenges posed by systemic corruption contribute to the perpetuation of poverty and the hindering of economic opportunities. 

Although past governments had set up institutions like the EFCC, ICPC, Code of Conduct Bureau and Court of Conduct Tribunals to investigate and prosecute corrupt officials in courts of law, very little has been achieved in terms of stemming the epidemic.  While Nigerians constantly complain of the ineffectiveness of these prosecuting agencies, it is in fact, that the government is being accused of serious   nepotism, partisanship and lack of political will and the impartiality to deal decisively with corruption amidst the following challenges:

• Lack of transparency and a breakdown of law and order;
• Absence of effective mechanism to enforce the laws of the nation;
• Rules are subverted in the country without appropriate sanctions;
• Weak institutions susceptible to corruption, inefficient, unresponsive, secretive and poor inter-personal relationship; and
• Absence of coordinated national anti-corruption strategy that foster transparency and accountability that are trusted by all Nigerians in a non-partisan manner.

Policy Objective

Our policy objectives are to prevent corruption.

Towards this end, we shall focus on:

• Building strong anti-corruption institutions that cannot be manipulated by personalities, and a culture of accountability, effectiveness, efficiency and transparency; and
• Rigorous enforcement of  judicious use of public resources, with zero tolerance for nepotism, corruption and poor management.

What We Will Do

We shall:

Institute Institutional Reforms in Anti-Corruption Agencies.

a. Strengthen the anti-corruption agencies to be totally independent of government interference and control, and delineate the functions of the Independent Corrupt Practices and other Related Offences Commission (ICPC), the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC), Code of Conduct Bureau, Code of Conduct Tribunal and other law enforcement agencies;

b. Reinforce the abilities of the anti-corruption and law enforcement agencies through improved funding and improved conditions of service to enable the agencies performs optimally;

c. Encourage all anti-corruption agencies to enjoy a seamless and rancourfree relationship with the office of the Attorney General of the Federation in order to improve the efficiency of the anti-corruption drive of the Federal Government;

d. Support and transform the capacity of the criminal justice system to deal with corruption and corrupt practices in a more efficient and effective way; and

e. Initiate measures aimed at changing public perception towards corrupt practices especially transferring of ill-gotten wealth to foreign accounts and jurisdictions through:

• Improving the control and management of international borders by creating and training specialized units and border police to combat the illegal transfer of ill-gotten assets and properties.
• Increasing cooperation, strengthening of organizational, human and financial resources of law enforcement departments in the observance, adherence and implementation of foreign treaties or conventions on corruption and the recovery and repatriation of proceeds of corruption.

Fighting corruption – our immediate actions:

a. Launch a comprehensive National Anti-corruption Strategy that is based on the rule of law, separation of powers, neutrality and nonpartisanship to reposition and refocus all our Anti-corruption and Law Enforcement Agencies within the first 100 days in office.

b. Take steps to ensure that sensitive and critical legislations or amendments relating to whistle blower, witness protection, electronic evidence, cybercrime, and assets forfeiture are expeditiously passed within the first 100 days in office.

c. Ensure the strict compliance with the Code of Conduct for Public Officers as provided in the Fifth Schedule to the Constitution by all cadre of public officers especially the declaration of assets by all public officers across the tree tiers and arms of government.

d. Strengthenthe due process mechanism in all business operations of the government. Therefore, as a complete departure from the past, the National Procurement Council will be inaugurated within the first 100 days in office in accordance with the provisions of the Bureau for Public Procurement, Act.

e. Set up Major Corruption Case Monitoring & Review Committee for all major corruption cases under the Office of the Honourable Attorney General and Minister of Justice that would include Non-Governmental Organizations (NGOs), Civil Society Organizations (CSOs) and Media as observers to ensure that arbitrary or selective investigation and prosecution of major corruption cases by all anti-corruption agencies is permanently eliminated within the first 100 days in office.

f. Launch a comprehensive “Open governance Partnership Framework” that ensures the involvement of Community Based Organization (CBOs), Non-Governmental Organizations (NGOs), Civil Society Organizations (CSOs) and the Media in monitoring the federal government budget process, budgets performance and project implementation for an  independent assessments of the performance of the government within the first 100 days in office.

g.  Set up an inter-ministerial task team and enforcement team for the review and immediate implementation of the recommendations contained in the Nigeria Extractive Industries Transparency International Reports from inception to date within the first 100 days in office.

h. Review and expedite action on the passage of all existing and pending new laws or amendments to all anti-corruption laws currently in the National Assembly.

I. Ensure adequate and continuous funding of a comprehensive public education and enlightenment campaign using the National Orientation Agency (NOA) on dangers of corruption in all ramifications.

Detect corruption by:

a. Deployment of appropriate technology that supports the end-to-end operations of government businesses for transparency, accountability, efficiency and effectiveness across all Ministries, Department and Agencies (MDAs). 

b. Supporting the public especially the media, NGOs and CSOs to take advantage of the Freedom of Information Act, and encourage the subnational governments to enact same law. 

c. Instituting robust anti-corruption detection mechanism by restructuring all anti-corruption agencies for maximum efficiency.

Sanction Corrupt Practices by:

a. Ensuring that judgments on corruption cases are fully followed through and enforced by the appropriate law enforcement agencies.

b. Entrenching strong rewards and sanction regimes at all levels of government; 163

c. Creating special tribunals to try corruption cases sent to it by the relevant anticorruption agency of the Government.

d. Speeding up judgments on outstanding cases of corruption and ensuring plea bargains are not abused.

Institutional Strengthening

To strengthen the anticorruption institutions, we shall:

a.      Grant all the anti-corruption agencies financial independence to ensure their autonomy based on the principles of non-interference and absolute neutrality.

b. Ensure that there is a separation of the Office of the Attorney- General for the Federation and Minister of Justice.

c. Inaugurate a Presidential Data Integration Committee for improving the functionality and integration of all the country's national data bases  such as the National Identity Management Commission (NIMC), Corporate Affairs Commission (CAC), Federal Inland Revenue Services (FIRS), Nigeria Immigration Service (NIS) International Passport, Nigeria Communication Commission (NCC), Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN), Code of Conduct Bureau (CCB) and Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) to ensure information and intelligence sharing, robust credit system, assets tracing and detection of financial crimes within the first 100 days in office.

d. Deploy an integrated payment system infrastructure for the payment of salaries, pensions and contractors and all other government expenditures in a transparent and accountable manner with proper electronic audit trails to eliminate pension fraud, ghost workers and fictitious expenditure in government operations. 

e. Deploy a single window revenue and expenditure management system   that provides atransparent and accountable revenue earnings across all  federal government ministries, departments and agencies (MDAs).

On the Reward System

We shall:

a. Undertake a comprehensive review and increase of salaries of all public officers within the federal services, lawenforcement and armed forces to be financed through improved revenue income from reduced  leakages.

b. Emphasize the concept of FAIR PAY for FAIR WORK starting with the highest levels of government.

c. Ensure that all public workers are adequately rewarded and compensated, thus providing the government with the moral authority to sanction errant public workers.

d. Use the wage structure in changing rewards system, with emphasis on merit.

Anti- Corruption Public Enlightenment Campaigns

a. Strengthen the National Orientation Agency (NOA) to make it more functional.

b. Use the educational system as the foundation for waging the War Against Corruption (WAC), creating anti-corruption vanguards in all educational institutions, and introducing Integrity lecture series.

c. Promote and sustain public education and enlightenment on the negative effect of corruption through active engagement with anticorruption clubs and associations.

d. Ensure that anti-corruption transparency monitoring units (ACTUs) are established in all Ministries, Departments and Agencies (MDAs) including all educational institutions. Government will make sure that all ACTUs are fully funded.

e. Make subjects like civic education compulsory in the curricula of our schools so that students would be taught ethics, patriotism, leadership values as well as the values of honesty, integrity and uprightness from a very tender age.

f. Involve the media and civil society organizations to help in bringing to light information that would facilitate and promote investigations into corruption cases.

g.  Document the successes recorded in asset recovery and repatriation, the two being one of the most effective methods of dealing with corruption in Nigeria.

h. Strengthen the “whistleblowing” and witness protection policies.

Promotion of Rule of Law

We shall recognize the central place of the rule of law and will ensure:

• The supremacy of law over all persons and authorities;
• The supremacy of the Constitution;
• The independence of the Legislature;
• The independence of the Judiciary; and
• The right to personal liberty, democratic, and other fundamental rights.