The Labour Party presidential candidate, Dr. Chibuzo Okereke, has called for a comprehensive, integrated strategy to tackling corruption in Nigeria, emphasizing the need to address root causes from the ground up rather than focusing solely on punitive measures.

Speaking during the News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) Personality Interview Series in Abuja, Okereke argued that while the law must take its course against culpable individuals, long-term success requires active prevention frameworks starting at the family and community levels.

“First of all, you must address the root cause from family values before it gets to national values, ethical principles, and reorientation of the people,” Okereke stated.

Key Pillars of the Proposed Anti-Corruption Framework

Dr. Okereke outlined a multi-layered strategy designed to reform institutional integrity and rebuild civic trust:

• Grassroots Ethical Reorientation: Integrating anti-corruption values and accountability training directly into primary, secondary, and tertiary educational institutions—drawing on his background as a former student union leader who helped establish university anti-corruption vanguards.

• Empowering Anti-Corruption Agencies: Enhancing existing anti-corruption bodies through stronger political will and improved conditions of service to scale up their operational capacity.

• Transparent Recovery and Decentralized Projects: Ensuring that recovered looted funds are utilized transparently for monumental public projects, backed by decentralized supervision and monitoring to completely eliminate loopholes.

• Reversing “State Exit”: Actively bridging the growing gap between citizens and government by prioritizing social security, social justice, and merit-based opportunities so that the public feels like true partners in progress.