Wamac Call For Anti-Corruption Fight Using Local Languages in Lagos

LAGOS – Wadata Media and Advocacy Centre (WAMAC), an NGO, with the support of MacArthur Foundation, has called for sustained efforts against corruption in Nigeria using local languages.

It called for this during a Town Hall Meeting in Lagos over the weekend to amplify the fght against corruption, deploying local languages: The meeting was themed, ‘Community Participation in the Fight against Corruption in Nigeria Using Local Languages’ held on Saturday.
Participants were drawn from the media, civil society organizations, community based organizations, religious and community leaders as well as anti-corruption agencies- EFCC and ICPC – and the National Orientation Agency (NOA).
At the end of the town hall meeting, the organization, through a press statement by Zubair Abdurrauf Idris, the team lead, made the following resolutions to fast tract the fight against corruption through community participation:-

“We understand the endemic corruption in our society and call on people to be passionate about the fight against corruption in our various communities in order to redeem the collapsed family value system. We urge participants to take the right steps and own the fight against corruption.

“We emphasize the need to fast-track investigations towards the conviction of exposed corrupt persons.

“Participants also called for the teaching of local languages and core values of culture and tradition to aid the fight against corruption.

“The meeting agreed on the involvement of the public, particularly the youth, in the fight against corruption, by sensitizing them on the destruction caused by corruption.

“The meeting urged community leaders to take the message of anti-corruption to their different areas/domains, in their local languages.

“Participants emphasized the need to use different means, such as the Freedom of Information (FoI) Act and whistle-blowing, in the fight against corruption.
The meeting looked at the importance of using different channels of communication to inform anti-corruption agencies, the Independent Corrupt Practices and Other Related Offences Commission (ICPC) and the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC), about corrupt practices in our communities.