The Minister of Justice, Lateef Fagbemi SAN, has reiterated the federal government’s commitment to strengthen efforts to fight corruption at all levels.

Mr Fagbemi said this at the Validation Meeting of the National Anti-Corruption Strategy (NACS) (2022-2026) Action Plan on Friday in Abuja.

The Ministry of Justice organised the programme with the support of the European Union/International IDEA, Rule of Law and Anti-Corruption (RoLAC II) Programme.

He noted that NACS would provide a holistic national anti-corruption strategy for all sectors and stakeholders in the fight against corruption.

Mr Fagbemi said that after the expiration of the NACS 2017-2021, it became essential that the NACS action plan be reviewed to ensure enhanced participation, effectiveness and responsiveness.

“After a series of consultations and collaborations between the 22 MDAs with anti-corruption and accountability mandates, the draft NACS Action Plan is before us for our perusal and validation.

“The framework for the NACS Action Plan implementation is focused on five pillars, which serve as the driving force for both the public and private sectors.

“The five pillars are prevention of corruption, public engagement, campaign for ethical reorientation, enforcement and sanction, and recovery and management of proceeds crime,” Mr Fagbemi said.

He said the implementation of the action plan would strengthen the legal and institutional framework designed to prevent and combat corruption.

Also speaking, Jane Onwumere, head of the Technical Unit on Governance and Anti-corruption Reforms (Tugar), secretariat of the Inter-Agency Task Team (IATT), said the 2022-2026 Action Plan would give life to service delivery in the country.

Ms Onwumere noted that Nigeria has gone through two cycles of review of her implementation of the United Nations Convention against Corruption (UNCAC), which took place in 2014 and 2019, respectively.

She noted that the previous Action Plan 2017-2021 witnessed some challenges in implementation, but notwithstanding the challenges, some progress was recorded.

“Evidence in the passage of critical legislation such as the Money Laundering (Prevention and Prohibition) Act, 2022, and the Terrorism (Prevention and Prohibition) Act, 2022.

“Others are the Proceeds of Crime (Recovery and Management) Act, 2022; the Petroleum Industry Act, 2021; and the Companies and Allied Matters Act, 2020, among others.

“There has also been some growth of transparency initiatives like beneficial ownership disclosures, open Contracting and routine corruption risk assessments that determine vulnerabilities to corruption,” Ms Onwumere said.

Present at the event were heads of most MDAs with anti-corruption and accountability mandates.

Other stakeholders present were the current president of the Nigeria Bar Association (NBA) and representatives from different agencies, amongst others.

(NAN)