Our Correspondent
The Independent Corrupt Practices and Other Related Offences Commission (ICPC) has confirmed that many countries are now yearning to replicate the reforms and sanitization in the Nigerian ports sector.
ICPC Chairman, Dr. Musa Adamu Aliyu, SAN, noted this during a courtesy visit by a delegation from the Convention on Business Integrity (CBI) at the Commission’s headquarters recently.
This information is contained in a press statement signed and available to Journalists ICPC’s Spokesperson Mrs. Azuka Ogugua.
The ICPC boss expressed his happiness at the progress and promised that the Commission would continue to partner with them and provide necessary support to sanitize the ports because the country needs business and foreign direct investment.
“I am happy that some countries are now yearning to replicate this thing. Nigeria as a country has many good people. ICPC will continue to partner with you and support you because we need businesses and foreign direct investments to come into this country. We have to continue to partner to sanitize the ports. The fight is a collective fight by all of us.”
Earlier, the leader of the delegation, Mr. Soji Apampa, said the visit was prompted by the need to underscore the importance of the work ICPC has been doing in partnership with other stakeholders in the ports sector.
Mr. Apampa recalled that after meeting with ICPC in 2019 to discuss issues around Nigeria’s ports, the Commission, in collaboration with some other agencies, immediately swung into action through a sting operation, which was very effective and led to increased productivity and efficiency over the years.
In his words, “In 2019, we recorded 266 cases of demands for large unreceipted cash payments in dollars. Because of the sting operation by ICPC, this fell to 128 incidents. At first, we thought it was because of COVID that the officials were too scared. But the following year, it came down to 84 cases. The year after that, it fell to only 48, and last year was 45 cases. So, we can see that year in, year out, it continues to fall. Productivity and efficiency have gone up as a result of all these.”
Apampa informed the Chairman that because of this achievement, countries like Egypt, Ukraine, and India are now working to replicate the Nigerian “miracle”.
“We have also introduced it to Ghana, Senegal, and Togo, and the sentiment around the world is that if Nigeria can produce something that leads to change, then it is worthy of emulation. People are happy. We are receiving requests for support.”
Apampa appealed to the ICPC boss to continue to partner with them to amplify this achievement in various world fora considering the Corruption Perception Index (CPI), which consistently shows Nigeria as though nothing is happening
