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Compliance with National Ethics and Integrity policy by Business Organizations and Professional Associations in Nigeria has been identified as critical to National Economy.
The Chairman, Independent Corrupt Practices and Other Related Offences Commission (ICPC), Professor Bolaji Owasanoye made this known at a virtual Sensitisation meeting on National Ethics and Integrity Policy for Business Management Organizations and Professional Associations held in Abuja, Nigeria.
Represented by Mrs Olubukola Balogun, the ICPC boss explained that, the virtual Sensitisation was “targeted at educating and getting the support of the professional bodies and business organizations on the National Ethics and Integrity Policy (NEIP) of the Federal Government aimed at resuscitating our national values of honesty, integrity, professionalism, patriotism, participation and human dignity”.
The virtual Sensitisation interaction was initiated by the ICPC in collaboration with the office of the Secretary to Nigerian Government and the National Orientation Agency (NOA).
According to Owasanoye, “the policy was approved and adopted by the Federal Executive Council and signed by President Mohammadu Buhari in 2020 while the full implementation commenced in March,” adding that “the first phase of the implementation began with the engagement of traditional institutions and stakeholders in all the six geopolitical zones”.
The ICPC boss noted that the engagement of the professional bodies and business organisations was paramount given their roles as the drivers of the national economy.
“It is a known fact that a successful implementation and sustainability of this policy depends to a large extent, on the readiness of the professional bodies to uphold and practice those core values contained in the discharge of their professional responsibilities. For instance, core values of integrity and professionalism require that professional bodies adhere strictly to the codes of their professional practice with high sense of responsibility.”
Professor Owasanoye emphasized that, Professional bodies must gather the courage to enforce the ethics of their profession on their members by punishing erring members and rewarding those found to be honest and impeccable.
“If the American Bar Association for example, could ban a former American president from practicing law and stopped him from appearing in the American Supreme Court because he had brought the legal profession to disrepute, I don’t see why the Nigerian Bar Association would not take action against erring members and there are many of them who willfully violate the ethics of the legal profession,’’ he said.
Ethical standards
ICPC boss however, commended some professional bodies who had upheld ethical standards in regulating their profession, urging them to collaborate with ICPC for the implementation of the policy.
He gave the assurance that the commission in partnership with NOA, would take the sensitization campaign to the grass root and called on the civil society organizations to support ICPC towards this direction.
The Director General of National Orientation Agency, NOA Dr Garba Abari commended ICPC for designing the policy, adding that the engagement is timely.
Abari said, the collapse of ethical standards and integrity in the Nigeria is worrisome, adding that it had great impact on the country as a whole.
He called on all professional bodies and business organisations to have a look at their codes of ethics with a view to ensure high quality and observance of their respective codes.
Dr Abari also called on organizations, religious bodies and families to rise up to expectation and play the roles expected of them to bring the country back to the core value of ethics and integrity.
Meanwhile, a representative of the Nigerian Bar Association NBA Mr. Okechukwu Ozoechi described the policy as a good development, saying that ethics remained the main thrust of NBA with regard to legal profession in the country.
Ozoechi, while lamenting the collapse of ethical standards and integrity in the system, urged all professional bodies to promote and adhere to the ethics of their professions in the performing their duties.
Mrs Ifeoma Okwuosa of the Institute of Chartered Accountants of Nigeria (ICAN), said that ICAN as a professional body had aligned with the activities of ICPC in promoting ethical standards at all level.
She noted that ICAN is ensuring that probity and integrity were being adhered to by its professionals, adding that no nation can prosper without the culture of probity and integrity.
Lateefah Ibrahim
