BudgIT, a civic organisation that uses tech tools to simplify budget and matters of public spending for citizens, has launched,www.reportyourself.org, a new website for Nigerians to report instances of everyday corruption by agents of the government.
The platform which was developed in collaboration with the Religious Leaders Anti-Corruption Committee (RLAC), the Socio-Economic Rights & Accountability Project (SERAP) and the Social Economic Rights Action Center was funded by the United States Department of State’s Bureau of International Narcotics and Law Enforcement.
Speaking at the launch in Lagos on Wednesday, the Senior Manager, Project, BudgIT, Stanley Achonu, said that the new tool would enable Nigerians curb petty corruption involving low-level civil servants and agents of government which he noted if left unaddressed, would graduate to “grand corruption” when such civil servants rise to prominent positions in government.
“We thought of a tool to monitor corruption starting from the low-level because, petty corruption kills. There is the grand corruption in Nigeria. Grand corruption starts as petty corruption with low- level civil servants engaged in demanding bribes for
procurement of driving license, granting bail (police), or at the marriage registry.”
The Deputy Chief of Mission, US Embassy, David Young, noted that the cost of corruption is not measured only in the humongous money lost such as the 45 million dollars recovered by the EFCC from the Ikoyi flat but in the daily pains suffered by ordinary Nigerians in their everyday lives as a result of corruption.
Young said that the new platform would put the power to report and fight corruption in the palms of Nigerians and expressed hope that it would galvanize a new movement for citizen engagement in the country.
“It(Reportyourself.org)will offer Nigerians opportunity to instantly report acts of corruption,” he said, adding, “I hope that the new tool starts a new movement for citizens engagement in Nigeria.”
