Director-general of the National Institute of Policy and Strategic Studies (NIPSS) Prof. Ayo Omotayo, says death penalty for corrupt public officers, as suggested in some quarters, will not curb corruption in Nigeria.
He said rather, the country should embrace behaviour change in reducing the menace.
Omotayo stated this at the validation of the ‘Curriculum on Institutionalising Behaviour-Change Approaches to Reducing Corruption in Public and Private Sectors in Nigeria’, organised by NIPSS in Abuja on Thursday.
He said there are strong anti-corruption regulations and campaigns for reducing corruption in Nigeria, adding that these measures have worked to some extent.
He suggested that engendering change in behavioural orientation of public and private sector actors as well as other citizens, constitutes a cardinal strategy towards reducing and halting corrupt practices.
This approach, according to the NIPSS DG, goes beyond emphasis on law and order, to focusing more on behaviour and norm change.
He said: “Corruption has levels. If a policeman takes a bribe of ordinary N100 from you, that is a corrupt practice. But will they execute someone for taking N100 bribe? So, corruption has levels.
“And of course, I still do believe that this state is not supposed to be a punitive state, to the extent of shooting people or tying them to sticks and executing them.
“Killing people for corruption is not something we, at NIPSS, want to encourage. If we can reduce corruption to 50 per cent, our society will be okay. Corruption in Nigeria has not got to a level that we will be executing people.”
