The United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime (UNODC) is calling for more drastic actions to be taken in the fight against corruption in Nigeria.
The country’s representative of the UNODC, Mrs Cristina Albertein who spoke at the launch of the document in Abuja, appealed for a more coordinated approach between government agencies and development partners in fighting the menace.
“There is the need to also investigate and prosecute the corrupt offences and in that context also to have mechanisms of international co-operations so that if offenders go to other countries and try to deposit stolen money overseas, that there is cooperation between the countries to bring offenders back and also to recover the stolen assets,” she said.
The appeal follows the release of a report by the National Corruption Survey, conducted in conjunction with the UNODC and published by the National Bureau of Statistics.
In a detailed breakdown of the extent to which bribery and corruption is being practiced in the nation, the survey revealed that Nigerians have spent about N400 billion on payment for bribe between June 2015 and June 2016.
Also according to the report, almost one bribe is paid by every adult Nigerian per year by combining the total number of people who paid a bribe to a public official.
Meanwhile on his part, the Acting President, Professor Yemi Osinbajo says it is impossible to implement government policies or programmes with the level of corruption that has bedeviled Nigeria.
He said this on Wednesday during the swearing-in of 15 new Permanent Secretaries in Abuja, adding that if allowed to thrive, corruption will rob citizens of the benefits of democracy.
Professor Osinbajo, therefore, used the opportunity to advise the new Permanent Secretaries to be diligent with their duties especially in line with the government’s anti-graft war.
“It is your responsibility as Federal Permanent Secretaries especially the new Federal Permanent Secretaries chosen and selected on merit, to ensure that you carry out in the fullest measure, all of the anti-corruption measures of this government.
“We expect that Permanent Secretaries will be the drivers of the implementation of the executive orders,” he stated.