Public Affairs Analyst

  There are several anti-corruption policies, programmes and agencies in Nigeria. Some of the institutions established to combat corruption are the Nigeria Police, Code of Conduct Bureau and Tribunal, court, Independent Corrupt Practices and other related offences Commission, Economic and Financial Crimes Commission and Financial Action Task Force. Others include Nigeria Extractive Industry Transparency Initiative, Fiscal Responsibility Commission, Bureau of Public Procurement, Office of Attorney General and Minister for Justice, and the Accountant General and Auditor General of the Federation. At the legal and policy levels, we have the following: Mutual Legal Assistance Treaty Agreements; extradition treaties for corrupt persons; electoral laws against vote-buying and selling; whistle-blower policy; and the Treasury Single Account. Using technology, Nigeria is fighting corruption with the Integrated Payroll and Personnel Information System and Bank Verification Number while there i

  On August 4, 2021, on my programme, Development Focus with Jide Ojo on ITV, Abuja, I was privileged to host an environmentalist, Mr. Olusola Babalola, the Executive Director of Centre for Environmental Sustainability and Development Awareness. He was on the programme to discuss the topic: “Managing environmental hazards in Nigeria”. During the interactive session, we touched on a wide-range of environmental issues from desertification to flooding, wildfires, environmental pollutions, health hazards and how best to tackle climate change. It was quite insightful! Incidentally, last week Monday, precisely on August 9, 2021, Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change released its Sixth Assessment Report in Geneva, Switzerland. That report was very revealing. The IPCC report said inter alia that, “Many of the changes observed in the climate are unprecedented in thousands, if not hundreds of thousands of years, and some of the changes already set in motion — such as continued sea level ri

    “Over the last 16 days, you amazed us with your sporting achievements. With your excellence, with your joy, with your tears, you created the magic of these Olympic Games Tokyo 2020. You were faster, you went higher, you were stronger, because we all stood together – in solidarity. You were competing fiercely with each other for Olympic glory. At the same time, you were living peacefully together under one roof in the Olympic Village. This is a powerful message of solidarity and peace” –International Olympic Committee President, Thomas Bach, during the closing ceremony of the Tokyo 2020 Olympic Games on August 8, 2021 I heartily congratulate Japan for the successful hosting of the 32nd Olympic Games from July 23 – August 8, 2021. Hosting a game with over 11,000 athletes in attendance during a pandemic such as COVID-19 is not easy. Remember, the event was shifted like the Euro 2020 football competition from 2020 to 2021. There were a lot of protests from the Japanese on the need

  I am not a stranger to Kogi, the one aptly named the Confluence State. I have traversed the length and breadth of the state going to the South-West and South-East parts of the country. I have also attended a number of workshops at the state capital, Lokoja. However, each time I visit, as I did last weekend, I am always in search of what is new. The last time I was in the state was in 2017. So, when the Executive Director of Conscience for Human Rights and Conflict Resolution, Idris Miliki Abdul, sent me an invite as a special guest at a workshop his NGO was holding on Monday, August 2, 2021, I gladly accepted. My tasks were three-fold: To be a guest on his organisation’s radio programme on Grace 95.5 FM; present a paper on “The role of CSOs in anti-corruption and accountability in the electoral process” as well as unveil the “Charter of demands on prioritising anti-corruption and accountability issues during the upcoming 2023 General Election at the state level”. Off I went on Sund