FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
Media Contact: Bunmi Titiloye
234 8033020170
[email protected]

IAP CALLS ON FED GOVT TO RATIFY UN, AU CONVENTIONS
Lagos 9 December, 2003. As world leaders converge today in Mexico to
sign the United Nations Convention Against Corruption, Independent
Advocacy Project (IAP), the good governance group, urges the federal
government to sign and ratify this global instrument and the African
Union Convention on Preventing and Combating Corruption. The final
text of the UN Convention was recently agreed by state delegates,
while African Heads of State adopted the AU Convention last July in
Maputo, Mozambique at their 2003 Summit.

In a statement released today in Lagos, IAP says today's signing
ceremony is a realisation by various governments that it has become
expedient to urgently act against corruption which has become a
transnational issue.

Drawing the link between the AU Convention and the New Partnership
for Africa's Development (NEPAD), IAP points out that ratifying the
AU Convention will assist the federal government in living up to its
NEPAD promises, especially as Nigeria has voluntarily submitted
itself to be reviewed under NEPAD's African Peer Review Mechanism
(APRM).

Says the good governance group: "The AU Convention is a standard
setting regional instrument with useful provisions such as those on
access to information and the participation of civil society and the
media in the monitoring process. Other articles seek to ban the use
of funds acquired through corrupt means to finance political parties
and the repatriation of the proceeds of corruption."

Incidentally, these are some of the key governance areas where
Nigeria is still struggling. The Freedom of Information Act is yet to
be passed by the National Assembly, various obnoxious laws which are
holdovers of the colonial and military regimes abound in the statute
books, corruption is endemic in the nation's political parties, while
billions of dollars pilfered by the late military dictator Sani
Abacha are trapped in oversees banks.

IAP believes that ratifying and incorporating these two Conventions
into Nigerian laws will assist Nigeria in these areas. It will also
demonstrate that President Olusegun Obasanjo is genuinely seeking to
rid Nigeria of corruption and that the Independent Corrupt Practices
Commission (ICPC),which has been embroiled in controversy was not set
up merely to deflect public criticisms.

IAP urges the federal government to announce, in the coming months,
its programme for signing, ratifying and domesticating both the UN
and AU Conventions. Without such an announcement, criticism of the
Obasanjo regime's anti corruption programme may become even more
strident.
ends

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Indpendent Advocacy Project (IAP)
5 Iyalla Street, Alausa-Ikeja, Lagos Nigeria.
234 1 8033020170 Fax: 2341 4934894
e-mail: [email protected]
website: http://www.ind-advocacy-project.org