Fight Against Corruption Must Start With Education-Group
Many young people in Nigeria are now declaring for Anti-corruption despite the wide perception that ‘anything goes’ in the country.
The President of Unsullied Nigeria Initiative, Victor Alade disclosed this in a statement to newsmen on Sunday.
He described the organisation as a volunteer NGO that is focused on promoting awareness of Anti-corruption and acculturation of values and integrity in young people and children as their key goal. Solely run by volunteers, the organisation conducts integrity Class tours (ICTPS) to Primary and Secondary Schools, a year-round event where they offer free Integrity and Anti-corruption education to students, youth and teenagers in religious organisation in the country using a tailor-made-training programme.
The statement reads “We are targeting education for our ICTPS plan because we believe that integrity education plays a vital role in repositioning the minds of young people, while we focus on research, advocacy and Anticorruption Initiative Assessment as a tool for public and private institutions to embrace Integrity” The President said.
According to him, the feedback from young people undergoing their classes is giving an indication that a new Nigeria is rising, with people who are freed of trappings of illegality and corruption. With this, he believes the mission statement of the organisation to support the emergence of a New Nigeria freed of corruption is gradually coming to reality.
He further said “We (UNI) believe that integrity education plays a vital role in repositioning the minds of young people. Through our public integrity training for Primary &Secondary school students, we are able to see a marked difference in the perception of students about anti-corruption than before. And many of them are making declarations to uphold the integrity and not embrace corrupt acts. It is also very instructive that, after the training, most of them pledge to become integrity ambassadors, such that they become a positive influence on their friends, relatives and their environment.”
“Simple events like our class tours can just be the right encouragement for young people to be instilled with values that make our society grow better.
“With modules adapted to the methods of the Organisation of Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) and other international anti-corruption agencies like ACRC, we are offering a demonstrable education on integrity that is result-driven.”
Asked about how the organisation funds its programmes, Victor Alade said “Like every other charity programmes, funding is a very important aspect. Our class tours are sponsored with personal funds from volunteers.”
“Despite our limited resources, he continued “the organization is not giving up on doing more. We are hoping to be able to incentivise most of our education programmes, especially for Primary and Secondary School students. We want to be able to maximise opportunities from the public through partnerships with both public and private institutions.” We believe the partnerships can help us to drive the strategic goals and objectives of the organization to become a resource centre for anti-corruption efforts and social cognition in both private and public institutions in Nigeria. So, yes we are open to partnerships with relevant bodies.
Unsullied Nigeria Initiative, a volunteer NGO started in 2017.