The chairman of the Independent Corrupt Practices and Other Related Offences Commission (ICPC), Musa Aliyu (SAN), has called for a recalibration of anti-corruption frameworks at state and local government levels.

ICPC spokesperson, Okor Odey, said in a statement on Friday that Mr Aliyu made the appeal at the 11th Session of the Conference of the States Parties to the United Nations Convention Against Corruption (UNCAC) in Doha.

The ICPC boss said this would help to close governance loopholes exploited through weak oversight structures.

Mr Aliyu stressed that corruption must be confronted where public resources and service delivery intersect most directly with citizens.

He argued that tackling corruption solely at the federal level risked allowing systemic leakages to thrive at local governments, where institutional safeguards and public scrutiny were weakest and most vulnerable.

The ICPC chairman noted that Nigeria has 774 local government areas, and the commission lacked the manpower to maintain a presence in all LGAs.

He said the emphasis was on preventive strategies, including corruption risk assessments.

He referenced the eight pillars of assessment developed by the Centre for Fiscal Transparency and Public Integrity as a useful tool for strengthening governance mechanisms.

The ICPC boss further emphasised the need for citizen engagement at the grassroots.

He explained that this informed the creation of the Accountability and Corruption Prevention Programme in Local Government Areas (ACPP-LG), launched in April 2025.

”The initiative is designed to proactively tackle corruption and related offences at the local government level by empowering communities, deepening transparency, and strengthening feedback mechanisms,” he noted.

He urged state governments to institutionalise transparency frameworks, strengthen public financial management controls, and align procurement systems with global accountability standards.

He called for stronger collaboration among public institutions, oversight agencies, and civil society in the collective fight against corruption.

The chairman highlighted Nigeria’s vulnerability to revenue leakages and compromised project implementation.

He said this arose from opaque budgeting, inflated contracts, payroll fraud involving ghost workers, and weak audit processes at sub-national levels.

To achieve sustainable development and reduce poverty, he maintained that anti-corruption compliance must be embedded within the administrative culture of states and local governments.

(NAN)