ActionAid Nigeria, partners to launch #ScrapCorruptionNG

The ActionAid Nigeria in partnership with other organisations are set to launch ab anti corruption project tagged #ScrapCorruptionNG in Abuja.  The event is expected to bring together participants from the government, private sector, the media, professional bodies, women groups, youth groups, academia, policy makers and enforcers, market associations, labour unions and people living with disabilities to participate.

It is known fact that past governments and present government have indicated interest and made efforts to fight corruption through various programmes and policies. Some have further shown efforts to design legal and institutional frameworks to reduce corruption in Nigeria. In spite of all these, corruption still happens unabated.

”While our policy makers and political drivers seem to be overwhelmed with the scourge of corruption, and how to address it with cutting-edge strategies, literatures have shown that one of the most likely reasons why past institutional, policy and legal frameworks experienced setbacks is because of the huge disconnection between the anti-corruption efforts and citizens’ participation”, a statement issued by the organisation as signed by Lola Iyanda read in part.

”However, for anti-corruption efforts in Nigeria to be more holistic and inclusive, it must go beyond the boundaries of law and enforcement or sanctions to the terrain of society, change in attitude and behaviours.  Therefore social norms seem to be the new window not because it is new or old, but because there are empirical evidence of strong relationship between social norms and corruption. On this premise, we may suggest that the anti-corruption efforts could leverage on this empirical positions by either appealing to existing social norms or create new ones with a view to change corrupt behaviour in Nigeria”, the statement added.

Against this backdrop, the “Strengthening Citizens Resistance Against Prevalence of Corruption” (SCRAP-C) Project will seek to look at the fight against corruption through social norm lenses, and complement the law and enforcement approach that has been in existence in Nigeria.

The SCRAP-C project is a five-year project supported by the Department for International Development (DfID) Anti-Corruption in Nigeria (ACORN) programme. It is managed by a consortium of three national organisations – ActionAid Nigeria (AAN), Centre for Democracy and Development (CDD), and Centre for Communication Production in Nigeria (CCPN) led by ActionAid Nigeria.

The project also has four implementing partners Centre for Citizens with disabilities (CCD), Women Advocates Research and Documentation Centre (WARDC), Youth Initiative for Advocacy Growth and Advancement (YIAGA), Human and Environmental Development Agenda (HEDA) who are taking responsibility for communities and groups engagements across six strategic states (Akwa-Ibom, Bornu, Enugu, Kaduna, Kano/Jigawa, and Lagos) including the FCT.

The SCRAP-C is a research and citizens’ oriented project. It will employ social marketing tools, research, advocacy, citizen’s mobilisation, media engagements and capacity development to achieve programme result which in this case is the desired behavioural change against corruption.  Therefore it will be more practical and beneficial for Nigerians to key into this innovative project to seek for desired behaviour change against corruption.

This unique project designed to set the pace for citizens’ engagements is a holistic and inclusive anti-corruption effort, introduces taking innovative and inclusive approach in its engagement with citizens. We believe that the adopted approach of citizens’ ownership of the anti-corruption battle would promote and nurture the right attitudes of citizens to corruption.