ICPC Pushes for Anti-Corruption Education in Legal Training

ICPC Pushes for Anti-Corruption Studies in Legal Training

The Independent Corrupt Practices and Other Related Offences Commission has reaffirmed its commitment to institutionalising anti-corruption education across Nigeria’s legal training framework. ICPC Chairman Dr. Musa Adamu Aliyu, SAN, outlined the initiative in Abuja during the closing remarks at the ICPC/Nigerian Law School Kano Zonal Workshop on the Integration of Anti-Corruption Education into Nigerian Universities and the Nigerian Law School.

The event, themed Institutionalising Anti-Corruption Education in Nigerian Legal Training, brought together law deans, legal scholars, and justice sector stakeholders to debate how ethics should be taught to future practitioners. Aliyu noted that corruption remains one of the greatest obstacles to the country’s development, weakening institutions, undermining the rule of law, eroding public trust, slowing economic growth, and affecting the quality of public service delivery. According to him, tackling corruption requires more than investigation and prosecution, stressing that prevention, education, and the promotion of integrity, transparency, accountability, and ethical conduct are equally important.

“Combating corruption cannot be limited to investigation and prosecution alone. It must also involve preventive, educational, and value-driven approaches capable of shaping attitudes, strengthening ethical consciousness, and promoting a culture of integrity, transparency, and accountability.”

Dr. Musa Adamu Aliyu, SAN, Chairman of the ICPC

Weighing Integration Methods Across Law Faculties

Rather than debating whether anti-corruption studies belong in legal education, stakeholders focused on practical implementation methods. Aliyu posed three central implementation questions during his address in Abuja, asking whether the material should be infused across existing law courses to ensure ethical consciousness across all areas of legal study, incorporated into broader general studies programmes, or introduced as a distinct and standalone course to provide the depth, focus, and visibility it deserves.

The workshop brought together law deans, legal scholars, and stakeholders in the justice sector to discuss practical ways of building accountability and transparency into legal training at both university and professional levels. Aliyu said lawyers occupy a sensitive position within the justice system and play a major role in shaping public trust in governance and state institutions. The ICPC chairman explained that the Commission, established under the Corrupt Practices and Other Related Offences Act, 2000, carries out its mandate through enforcement, prevention, and public education. He said the workshop supports the Commission’s preventive and educational mandate by bringing together stakeholders from faculties of law and the Nigerian Law School to develop a framework for integrating anti-corruption education into legal training. Discussions at the workshop focused on the possible inclusion of anti-corruption studies in the LL.B curriculum under the Core Curriculum and Minimum Academic Standards, CCMAS.

Next Steps for Curriculum Standards and Institutional Values

Speaking in an interview after the workshop, the coordinator of the programme and former Director-General of the Nigerian Law School, Professor Isa Hayatu Chiroma, SAN, said stakeholders will reach an understanding on the modality for implementing the initiative. Chiroma disclosed that the next phase would involve developing a comprehensive curriculum and setting uniform standards for anti-corruption education in legal training institutions across the country. He noted that lawyers and aspiring lawyers occupy strategic positions in society and must be equipped with the knowledge, ethical values, and professional standards required to prevent and combat corruption.

Aliyu emphasized that legal education is central to the anti-corruption fight because lawyers serve as custodians of justice and key actors in governance, stating that it will produce lawyers who are not only competent in their work but also committed to ethical leadership and national development.

This educational push connects to broader values-oriented initiatives across the country. In Bauchi State, the National Orientation Agency stated that in collaboration with the ICPC, it has established the Integrity and Anti-Corruption Club and Anti-Corruption Vanguards in tertiary institutions and secondary schools to promote integrity and moral values among young people who are leaders of tomorrow. Speaking in Bauchi on Saturday, the State Director of the NOA, Nuru Yusuf Kobi, stated this while presenting a paper during a one-day sensitization dialogue with traditional rulers, religious leaders, and civil society groups on behavioural change, National Ethics and Integrity Policy (NEIP), and Constituency/Executive Project Tracking Initiative. He said that the NEIP was conceived and delivered out of the need to resuscitate and rejuvenate lost values of honesty and integrity in the nation, adding that the moral decadence among youths seems to be going down, and there is a collapse in upholding societal values, beliefs, norms, and ethical standards.

The NOA boss said the integrity clubs in secondary schools are involved in the campaign against examination malpractice, stealing, fraud, and deceptions, stressing that the campaign aims to ensure that youths do the right thing, especially when no one is watching, as well as promote class attendance, curb loitering, stem the tide of cultism, and report all acts of corruption in the schools.

“The policy is aimed at resuscitating and revitalizing our lost values and enhancing the fight against corruption in our society. ICPC had earlier developed a National Values Curriculum (CIVIC Education) for the teaching of values in schools to young Nigerians and the National Ethics and Integrity Policy that was built on the basis of the curriculum to entrench positive values in the society.”

Nuru Yusuf Kobi, State Director of the NOA

Concerning the issue of the Constituency/Executive Project Tracking Initiative, the NOA State Director said that the ICPC conceived the initiative to ensure accountability and transparency in governance, especially in the execution of federal government-funded projects.