By Philip Yatai

A Non Government Organisation (NGO), Coalition of Associations for Leadership, Peace, Empowerment and Development (CALPED), on Friday in Kaduna called for collective action against corruption.

Mr Yusuf Goje, Head, Leadership, Governance and Advocacy, CALPED,made the call during town-hall meeting to strengthen community-led campaign against corruption in the state.

Goje urged community leaders to always speak out against corruption and demand for accountability in governance.

”The meeting is aimed at mobilising community members to strengthen community-led anti-corruption and accountability initiatives, as well as stem corruption at community level.

”This is with a view to improving the quality of service delivery and livelihood in communities,” he said.

He noted that annually, billions of naira were budgeted for capital projects in communities by the federal, states and local governments, but lamented that the projects were either not executed, poorly done, or outrightly abandoned.

He however said that although several factors may be responsible for the poor rate of projects, the major challenge was corruption.

“The corrupt practices persist because of the ignorance, nonchalant attitude and weak capacity of community stakeholders to hold the perpetrators accountable.

“Communities need to hold them accountable by tracking, monitoring, and reporting on the quality of project delivery based on specifications, timeliness and value for money.

“They also need to be empowered with the needed knowledge, skills and tools to track projects and demand for accountability”, he said.

Goje said that the mobilisation was under the Community-Led Anti-corruption and Accountability Project (CLAAP) being implemented in pilot local government areas of Chikun and Kudan.

He also disclosed that the project was being implemented in partnership with Kudan Development Network with support from Mambayya House, Aminu Kano Centre for Democratic Studies and MacArthur Foundation.

He added that the objective of the town hall meeting was to raise awareness on the negative impact of corruption on community development and livelihoods.

He also said that the meeting would also increase community consciousness on the need to take ownership of the fight against corruption towards ensuring corruption-free project execution in their localities.

“It is also to strengthen the capacity of identified community stakeholders on tracking, monitoring, and reporting of project execution in the communities.

“We also hoped to establish a network of active stakeholders under the Community-led Anti-corruption and Accountability Coalition to sustain the gains of the project”, he added.

Also speaking, Mr Godwin Basheru of the Independent Corrupt Practices and other related matters Commission, commended the groups for the efforts.

Basheru noted that the war against corruption would be successful if community members and civil society organisations take the lead in anti-corruption campaign and continue to talk about it.

Similarly, Mr Karik Sarki, Review Officer, Kaduna Public Procurement Agency said that the state government was doing all it could to curb corruption at procurement level and urged community members to monitor execution of projects.

Mrs Bako Usman, National President, Campaign for Democracy, also said that community participation in the execution of projects would significantly reduce corruption.