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Fix Nigeria Initiative (FNI)

Country

Nigeria

Programme Summary

The Fix Nigeria Initiative (FNI) is an anti-corruption campaign which was initiated in October 2006 to support the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC) and other anti-corruption agencies in their efforts to effectively fight and eliminate corruption in Nigeria. The initiative aims to involve civil society organisations (CSOs) and the private sector to become active agents in the fight against corruption. FNI is therefore working with youth, the media, faith-based organisations (FBOs), trade unions, and the private sector and is conducting advocacy training, encouraging anti-corruption clubs, developing media campaigns, increasing capacity in anti-corruption reporting, developing an Integrity Charter, and building general support amongst all stakeholders.

Editor's note: In 2008, Fix Nigeria was reincorporated into the EFCC.

Communication Strategies

FNI is based on the belief 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. To that end, FNI is involved in a range of activities with the following sectors:

Youth - The project is offering anti-corruption advocacy workshops in tertiary institutions; as part of the training, FNI encourages the formation of Anti-Corruption Clubs. FNI is also conducting integrity training for post-primary school students. Because football is considered a rallying point for youth in Nigeria, anti-corruption events are planned at football tournaments in order to encourage young 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. 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 formerly acted 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 its passage. 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 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 in partnering 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.

Private sector/professional groups - A five-star rating system was developed by the Convention on Business Integrity and then presented to the EFCC and Nigerian Financial Intelligence Unit (NFIU). FNI intends to follow this up with a rating system for state 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.

Faith-based organisations (FBOs) - 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 about the way forward. Other plans that will be promoted under this project 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.

Development Issues

Democracy and Governance, Corruption, Rights.

Key Points

According to organisers, several years of military misrule and mismanagement have severely weakened economic management processes and institutions in Nigeria. They argue that there is no transparency, and that accountability in government and in the private sector in 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. FNI contends that most private companies (both in the oil and non-oil sector) have 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, FNI argues, 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.

Partners

Economic and Financial Crimes Commission, European Union, United Nations Development Programme, United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime, People Against Drug Dependence and Ignorance.

Contact

Fix Nigeria Initiative (FNI)
Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC)

No. 5 Fomella Street
Off Adetokunbo Ademola Crescent
Wuse II

Abuja
Nigeria
Tel: 234 9 6441000

Source

Fix Nigeria Initiative website (no longer in service as of October 2008) on April 24 2008; and Fix Nigeria blog and EFCC website on October 27 2008.


Placed on the Communication Initiative site April 25 2008
Last Updated October 27 2008



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COMMENTS POSTED


I think this initiative is welcoming, but for how long will those that are at the forfront would be allowed to work without influencing it politically because of the wrongs they or their colleagues/friends had done in the past.


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