As part of its effort to embrace transparency and accountability in port business, the Nigerian Ports Authority (NPA), in collaboration with the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC) on Monday embarked on a sensitisation walk aimed to stem the tide of corruption and cybercrime in the nation’s seaports and Nigeria generally.
The walk, which was held in commemoration with this year’s International Anti-Corruption Day themed, ‘Zero Tolerance to Corruption,’ was organised in conjunction with the Nigerian Maritime Administration and Safety Agency (NIMASA), Nigerian Shippers’ Council (NSC) and the National Union of Road Transport Workers (NURTW).
Hadiza Bala Usman, managing director of the NPA, said the walk was an initiative taken to strengthen collaboration with other government agencies in the fight against corruption.
According to her, the maritime industry has come together against corruption because we believe that there was a need for us to embrace transparency and accountability across the board in all our operations.
Usman, who stated that corrupt practices were unacceptable, as they bring about economic mismanagement, said the inter-agency synergy with the EFCC was important in pushing the frontiers of anti-corruption in Nigeria.
“We have opened our operations to EFCC and we believe that there was need to entrench within our operations across the board, what is required to strengthen integrity and accountability,” said Usman.
Ibrahim Magu, the acting chairman of the EFCC said the fight against corruption calls for concerted efforts towards eradicating the menace in the country.
According to him, the EFCC cannot pretend that it has the monopoly of wisdom or strategy to single-handedly fight against corruption.
“Corruption can only be tackled when there is collaboration by all stakeholders in fighting the menace,” he said.
Represented by Muhammed Rabo, zonal head of the EFCC Lagos office, Magu urged all stakeholders to embrace values that promote accountability and transparency at all levels.
Hassan Bello, executive secretary/CEO of NSC said the council has been in the forefront of fighting corruption in Nigerian ports.
To him, NSC has been working to ensure processes at the ports are automated to reduce instances of corrupt practices to the barest.
“Corruption thrives when there is face-to-face interaction between the service providers and consumers. But, when the processes are automated, there will be no interface,” said Bello, who was represented by Samuel Vongtau, director of special duties.
Dakuku Peterside, director-general of NIMASA, who was represented by Victor Onwuzurike, director, internal audit, said the agency has zero-tolerance to corruption, and also an anti-corruption unit that actively responds to any complaint relating to corrupt practices within the agency.
