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Cross section of participants at the workshop
By Munyal Markus Manunyi
The incessant rise in corruption within the country is beginning to tell. Youths are not smiling, actions are gradually taken.
In the midst of the storm surrounding the corruption charges and drug deal labelled against the Deputy Commissioner of police, Abba Kyari, comes a one-day Youth Vanguard Against Corruption National summit 2022, organised by the Priest Peace & Justice Initiative (the Social Arm of Palace of Priests Assembly PPA) in collaboration with Frontline Youth Creativity Initiative (FYCI) to implement a project on Mobilisng Christians Against Corruption in Nigeria (MOCAC), the SHUN CORRUPTION PROJECT under the theme: The Mind and the fight against Corruption.The overarching goal of the project is to promote zero tolerance to corruption among Pentecostals through adherence to positive group norms, peer-to-peer accountability, and the institutionalisation of platforms against corruption. In all of the activities, the Bible (scriptures) will be the main reference material because, for christian leaders, the bible is the final authority. The Project is funded by John D. and Catherine T. MacArthur Foundation.
Among others present were participants from 25 states within Nigeria, who were empowered with knowledge on how to shun corruption under what the organisers referred to as the 3 ‘S’ model:
Speak up,
Stand up,
Shun corruption.
The opening remark was delivered by the General Overseer, Pastor Otive Igbuzor, PhD. Other speakers included Pastor Innocent Adanehi who happened to be the guest speaker and spoke about feeding your mind and will in pursuit of the vision and fight against corruption as an individual.
A panel discussion of a five-man team was set up to tackle the topic: The mind and fight against corruption. Hapsat Abdullahi, one of the panelists from Niger state stated that; “Your character is the projection of your mind. Corruption starts from the mind. It’s a choice. You either decide to do it or not”, believing that there’s a connection between the mind and corruption.
Patrick Chibomna says education and fearlessness are the first bold steps towards curbing corruption. Corruption, according to him, soils people. People get corrupted and end up ‘soiling’ others like Eve did in the garden of Eden when she ate the forbidden fruit and ended up soiling Adam to it too.
Florence David Abundant from Taraba, also a panelist, is of a different perspective on the subject matter, highlighting that: “Corruption has not eaten up everybody, there are good people still standing”.
Joy Okafor from Calabar was also of a divergent view, “The fear of God is the first step towards curbing corruption”.
Other fun catching but educational activities at the event were a spoken word performance on corruption by Hapsat Abdullahi, which got the atmosphere charged with excitement, questions and answers, testimonies from old members of the organisation and how it impacted in their lives were individually shared among others. The event drew to a conclusion by the presentation of Loveth Anthony from Frontline Youth Creativity Initiative (FYCI) categorically stating the mission of the initiative, which was to influence and target the content of creative arts by young people, to challenge the status quo and promote positive social change. It is also targeted at envisioning a society in which young people grounded in ideology targeted at social change raise their voices as creatives, using their craft to engender sustainable development. Loveth highlighted that the power of youths in bringing positive change is never to be undermined, citing an example with the activities of the end SARS which was dominantly carried out by youth thereby yielding a positive result that brought about the disbandment of the force, SARS.
Speaking further, Loveth discussed the need for the establishment of clubs in churches, schools and other organisations to help fight against corruption which is what FYCI is currently doing. And then speaking about the methodology the Initiative uses to fight corruption, she mentioned music, drama, spoken word, poetry, art and craft.
This summit took place on 22nd of March, 2022 at the Preken Hotel, Plot 2038, Masaka Close by NAFDAC Junction, Wuse Zone 7, Abuja.
