By Tosin Omoniyi

In an added effort to battle corruption in the country, President Muhammadu Buhari, has set up a Presidential Advisory Committee against Corruption to advise him on effective avenues to deal with graft.

Three development partners, Ford Foundation, MacArthur Foundation and Open Society Foundation have also promised to provide about $5m to assist the committee tackle graft.

The seven-man committee among other things is expected to guide the president on how to effectively use the nation’s criminal justice system to tackle the high incidence of corruption marring different sectors of the nation’s faltering economy.

The committee is also to develop comprehensive intervention strategies aimed at achieving the recommended reforms.

The committee is headed by Itse Sagay, a professor of Law and a veteran civil rights activist.

Members of the committee include Femi Odekunle, a professor of Criminology at the the Ahmadu Bello University; Benedicta Daudu, an associate professor of International Law, University of Jos; E. Alemika, a professor of Sociology, University of Jos; Sadiq Radda, a professor of Criminology at the Bayero University, Kano and Hadiza Bala Usman, another civil rights advocate.

A member of the Nigerian Institute of Advanced Legal Studies, Bolaji Owasanoye, is to serve as executive secretary of the committee.

“The committee’s brief is to advise the present administration on the prosecution of the war against corruption and the implementation of required reforms in Nigeria’s criminal justice system,” a press statement from the State House said.

The statement also disclosed that the three global development partners had already earmarked $5m to assist Nigeria prosecute its anti-corruption war and criminal justice reforms.

The fund is to be managed by Trust Africa, an organization which assists global efforts aimed at strengthening initiatives targeting Africa’s biggest challenges and which has ongoing projects in 25 nations.

President Buhari has always identified corruption as the major challenge stalling Nigeria’s progress economically.

He had noted at several economic and political outings that except corruption was killed, it would kill the nation.

Many attribute his Spartan attributes and anti-corruption stance over the years as the principal reason why he received massive number of votes from the electorate during the polls to defeat an incumbent leader.

It would be recalled that the president recently vowed to launch an investigation aimed at unraveling how the nation was defrauded of about $150bn mainly through illegal crude oil deals.

The president has also sought the assistance of the United States and other western countries in the administration’s unrelenting efforts to recover billions of naira of funds looted from the nation’s treasury.

In July, this year, Buhari disbanded the entire board of the Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation, NNPC, an outfit generally regarded as a cesspool of corruption.

He equally banned 113 foreign vessels from lifting crude oil from ports on allegations that the vessels were involved in the illegal lifting of the nation’s crude oil.