FNI believes that public participation and support is crucial to ethical reform in the country as participation ensures community ownership and a coherent philosophy, strategy, and methodology on questions of integrity and transparency.

FNI is involved in a range of activities with the following sectors:

Youth - The project is offering anti-corruption advocacy workshops in tertiary institutions and as part of the training encourages the formation of Anti-Corruption Clubs. FNI is also conducting integrity training for post-primary school students. As football is considered a rallying point for youth in Nigeria, anti-corruption events are planned at football tournaments in order to encourage youth people to become part of the anti-corruption crusade.

Media - In order to both eliminate corruption within the media and to involve the media in fighting corruption within society, FNI is involved in the following activities:

• FNI is training journalists in investigative reporting in order to institute a culture of investigative reporting in Nigeria. After their training, 10 investigative reporters are supported with small grants which enables them to write investigative reports related to health (HIV/AIDS funding), sports, local government and multinationals (oil, telecoms, pharmaceuticals, etc.).
• FNI is also offering training in ethics and media norms in order to institute a culture of norms among editors, reporters, and proprietors. The organisation is drawing on the expertise of international editors who, they believe, provide the needed peer influence and pressure to conform with international best practices.
• Allied to the training in ethics and media norms, the National Press Council (NPC), which used to act as a disciplinary council for journalists, will be actively engaged to help restore its diminished influence within the parameters of a broader mandate. A bill to amend their mandate has been at the National Assembly since 1999. FNI is supporting the advocacy for the passage of the NPC act. They are also working with the Nigerian Union of Journalists (NUJ) to ensure the setting up of an ethics panel at the national and state chapters of its operations.
• FNI believes that community radio can play a crucial role in the involvement of civil society in fighting corruption and building an ethical society. As Nigeria lags behind other West African countries in the development of community radio, FNI is supporting the existing activities to develop the community radio sector in Nigeria.
• The FNI media project has developed material resources in print and digital formats for media training institutions which aim to encourage the integration of anti-corruption reporting in the training curriculum.

Media Campaigns - In order to enhance its community participation strategy, the project has developed a media campaign which encourages news stories and articles in television and radio programmes, and in the print media.

In order to gain public support FNI is also making use of endorsements by celebrities such as Nigerian footballers, other sports personalities, and influential religious leaders. These endorsements involve 30-45 second adverts during prime time on both television and radio. In addition to this, the Performing Arts and Musicians Association (the umbrella body for all musicians and actors in Nigeria) has showed an interest to partner with FNI in the initiative. They plan to compose a theme song and also organise an open air concert.

FNI is also collaborating with notable Nollywood figures to develop a strategy on how to use the resources of the film industry to design a campaign that will help stigmatise corrupt practices.

Faith-based organisations - As Nigeria is a religious society, FNI believes that it is important to use FBOs to pass on messages related to crime prevention and the effects of corruption. A consultative meeting with respected religious leaders took place to help strategise on the way forward. Other plans that will be promoted under this project will include the use of the wide networks of mosques and churches as well as their schools to spread the Integrity Charter and to set up Integrity Clubs.

Trade and Labour Unions - Organised labour is one of the driving forces of the Nigerian economy and issues of corruption, lack of integrity and accountability pose a serious challenge to any attempt to grow the economy. FNI aims to work with organised labour to develop programmes to create an efficient and accountable workforce while eliciting their support in the development of a whistle blower mechanism in the country.

Private sector/professional groups - A five-star rating system has been developed by the Convention on Business Integrity and was presented to the EFCC and Nigerian Financial Intelligence Unit (NFIU). FNI intends to follow this up with a rating system for the states and local governments. One of the major deliverables of this initiative is a national Integrity Charter which will be drawn up with the active participation of business, civil society, media, religious, and professional groups and will be used as a standard ethical framework for groups and association.

Democracy and Governance, Corruption, Rights.

Several years of military misrule and mismanagement have severely weakened economic management processes and institutions in Nigeria. There is no transparency and accountability in government and in the private sector and Nigeria has become notorious for endemic corruption. The result has been the inability of government to deliver services to the Nigerian public and a lack of economic development. Most private companies both in the oil and non-oil sector have constantly evaded tax and have collaborated with public sector officials to evade custom duties and payment of taxes. In addition, widespread perpetration of economic and financial crimes like advance fee fraud, money laundering, cyber crime, banking fraud, and endemic corruption has had severe negative consequences on the Nigerian economy, including decreased foreign direct investments in the country.

This situation is exacerbated by the inability of the Nigerian law enforcement agencies to enforce anti-corruption laws and to prevent the unethical conduct that has led to the abandonment of many development projects and the looting of the treasury by public officials.