From Mustapha Adamu, Kano
Aminu Kano Centre for Democratic Studies, Mambayya House in Kano State has called on Imams and Pastors to help Government and Independent organisations in fighting against corruption.
The Centre, which is under Bayero University Kano (BUK) made the call at the 1st Bi-Annual Press Conference on Anti-corruption Project, sponsored by MacArthur Foundation, held yesterday at its headquarters in Kano.
Speaking at the press conference, the Project Director, Professor Ismaila Mohammed Zango noted that religious leaders have a big role to play in the fight against the scourge of corruption in the country.
According to him, since they have huge number of followers, both Muslim and Christian clerics should be frequently delivering sermons against corruption in their mosques and churches respectively.
Prof. Zango disclosed that the centre had equipped and empowered both Muslim and Christian clerics with requisite information on the rangers of corruption and how to speak against it using divine injunctions and the influence they have on their congregants.
“This is another significant feet in our sustained struggle against corruption. We strongly believe that government alone cannot succeed in the fight against corruption without the inputs of religious leaders who command respect and obedience of their followers across large segments of the citizenry,” said Prof. Zango.
He explained that the Centre had successfully completed the first round of the project, which was sponsored by the MacArthur Foundation with $1,000,000 grant, starting from 2018-2020.
The Director added that the Foundation had also re-granted the project at the cost of $800,000 to implement the second phase of the project for another three years from 2021-2024.
He said the Centre has been working on the project with four sub-grantees, namely; The Interfaith Network Against Corruption (INAC), Kano; the Interfaith Mediation Centre (IMC) Kaduna, Inter-religious Coalition Against Corruption in Nigeria (ICACN) Lagos, and the University of Nigeria Nsukka Muslim Community (UNNMC), Nsukka.
According to Prof. Zango, the project is aimed at mobilizing and educating citizens to actively engaged in activities that will strengthen social accountability and improve service delivery in local communities.
“To achieve this, we target Civil Society Organizations, Faith-Based Organizations, the media, Community-Based Organizations, students’ associations and Government agencies as the voice actors of behavioral change of citizens to be able to recognize, speak out, resist and report any corrupt behavior they encounter,” he explained.
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