ICPC, Peace Institute to form coalition against corruption, violence

The ICPC and the Institute for Peace and Conflict Resolution (IPCR) are to sign a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) in a coalition against corruption and violent conflicts in Nigeria.

This is contained in a statement issued on Monday in Abuja signed by Mr Mike Abu, Media Assistant to the Director-General of IPCR, Prof. Oshita Oshita.

The statement said the ICPC Chairman, Mr Ekpo Nta, emphasised the need for coalition between the two agencies when Oshita paid a courtesy visit on Nta.

It quotes Nta as saying that collaboration is needed to reduce corruption and violent conflict in the country.

Nta explained that corruption and violent conflicts were interwoven and intertwined.

The ICPC boss said that the reduction of corruption in the polity would guarantee relative peaceful atmosphere.

Nta advocated for the need for research to enhance effective decisions by the government and urged the Federal Government to give adequate attention to research institutes.

He said that government was all along addressing the symptoms of our problems and appealed for a more preventive approach rather than the reactionary method in the Nigerian system.

The ICPC boss commended IPCR for developing Early Warning Centres across the country, saying ICPC would be beneficial to the government and the public.

According to him, ICPC will emulate IPCR to ensure the production of a journal on anti-corruption for the benefit of Nigerians.

Earlier, Oshita said that the establishment of IPCR was necessary because of the dysfunctional role of conflicts adding that, the nexus of corruption and conflict was obvious.

He said conflict was a normal phenomenon but that violent conflict was a serious threat to lives while beneath the conflict was corruption.

Oshita expressed confidence in the commitment of President Muhammadu Buhari in the war against corruption and towards righting the wrongs in the country.

The IPCR boss commended the system review of the ICPC, noting that IPCR and ICPC needed strong partnership to enrich system programming to properly deal with corruption and violent conflicts.

He appealed to the two agencies to explore ways of improving services and good relations to make the country a better place.