As five public servants receive their Integrity Icon awards, the Country Director of Accountability Lab Nigeria, Odeh Friday, has blamed the challenges bedevilling economic and national development on a lack of accountability and integrity.
Odeh who stated this at the 6th edition of the Integrity Icon Awards ceremony, which was held recently in Abuja, stated that lack of integrity, which leads to corruption, inequality and insecurity, remains a serious challenge targeted at destroying the country. He said that Nigeria needs to build strong institutions that can stand on their mandates to carry out the course for which they were established.
He further explained that Integrity Icon is a national campaign by Accountability Lab Nigeria with support from Luminate Group, Ford Foundation and MacArthur Foundation, with the aim to celebrate and encourage honest civil servants who demonstrate integrity in the course of discharging their duties.
Odeh said: “If you look at what is happening in election campaigns, none of the political candidates has put accountability at the forefront of their campaign, which is a big problem for us because it is now going back to show that we are having the same circle back and forth in lack of accountability in our community.
“The top five public servants that perform fantastically every year are rewarded. We have seen the DG of a procurement agency in Gombe State, which has moved the revenue from about N400,000 to N1.2 billion.
“Those are the kind of inspirational stories we want because they are beginning to tackle corrupt practices that happen in those kinds of sectors like contracting which is the foremost corrupt practice in Nigeria happening in almost every sector.
“But when you find people like that doing the right thing, we can save more money, we can ensure that quality service is delivered to citizens.”
Article originally published in The Guardian