In March, HEDA held a one day hybrid Conference on Int. Anti-corruption Court- IACC, and its Partner -Integrity Initiatives International (III) with the Support of MacArthur Foundation.
With the theme: “Instituting International Anti-Corruption court: Issues, Challenges & Opportunities for Engagement”, dozens of experts, state actors and top professionals from across the world virtually and physically agreed that Institutionalising the international Anti-corruption court is a way forward towards waging war against the monster.
Chairperson, Dr. Oliver Stolpe, United Nations Office on Drugs & Crime (UNODC) Representative in Nigeria and other stakeholders across board were of the view that the level of damage Corruption – Particularly in Africa and the damage has wrought in every sphere of human endeavor, including the emotional psychological part of man I’d becoming unbecoming.
“All hands must be on deck to “size and keep corrupt persons where they belong to” – in jail, after recovering all. The affirmed.
Foreign Participants maintained that Nigeria could not afford to lag as other countries are pushing expeditiously to support the Institutionalization of IACC.
“Nigeria like many other African countries have been suffering of “Resource curse” due to the kpletocratic of few individuals who runs the affairs of the country politically and economically.
“The essence of establishing IACC was to fill in for huge gap for the Promotion of integrity, reduce kpletocracy behavior and end impunity, hence, many- countries gearing up towards IACC”.
They agreed that IACC was long overdue. Thus, it requires more campaign, advocacy and other support. The aim was to restore moral sanity in the body polity/ Society. Some Participants believe that anyone against this move must be a sadist.
“As a global phenomenal (but endemic in Africa) every responsible government in Africa was expected to shun ego & selfish political interest and take the lead for IACC, if not; the future will be difficult for them in terms of managing budgets and public resources. Achieving the SDG by 2030 would be a mirage if we do not end corruption. And as we all know, if we do not kill corruption, the monster will most definitely ruin us,” they agreed.
HEDA (being an unapologetic & permanent enemy of bad governance), its chairman, Olarenwaju Suraju, reaffirmed its commitment to take the conversation a step further. Called for cross fertilisation of Ideas, synergy, collective expertise and resources (intrinsic and extrinsic) to see this project to fruition as a matter of top priority.
Some key recommendations:
- To address the challenges of implementation facing anti-corruption laws and frameworks across developed and developing nations, countries across the globe should support the establishment of an International Anti-Corruption Court (IACC) to fill the huge gap in the global institutional or international framework for enhancing integrity, reducing kleptocratic behaviour and ending impunity.
- For Africa to be able to effective combat corruption, State parties should show more political will towards implementing the African Union Convention on Preventing and Combating Corruption (AUCPCC).
- While the IACC will be very different from the International Criminal Court (ICC) as well as other international courts or similar institutions, it should learn actively from the ICC as well as other international courts, ad-hoc tribunals or individuals who have worked in similar institutions to ensure a robust institution.
Quotes: “The only thing necessary for the triumph of evil is for good men to do nothing,”
