NISER Promises Actualising Behaviour Change in Nigeria

Yinka Kolawole in Osogbo

Although the narrative of how corruption has affected the development in Nigeria remains pervasive, there are institutions which have defied the odds to enthrone probity, transparency and accountability in how they engage in service delivery to the public.

At the Actualising Behaviour Change (ABC) series convened by the Nigeria Institute for Social and Economic Research (NISER) yesterday, stakeholders focused more on these positive stories, and how other institutions grappling with corruption can replicate such promising practices and achieve the desired results in terms of corruption control.

However, with specific reference to the transformation, which occurred at the Joint Admissions and Matriculation Board (JAMB), which used to be mired in corruption and poor service delivery, the third edition of the ABC Series presented NISER’s research findings on what specific policies were implemented by the tertiary institution’s admission body to seriously control corruption and improve service delivery.

Earlier in her opening remarks at the seminar, the Director-General of NISER, Professor Antonia Simbine, said: “This seminar was indeed important; it is another NISER/MacArthur Foundation Actualising Behaviour Change Series.

According to her, “It is our proudly unique platform for knowledge engagement among scholars, policy makers and bureaucrats of the behavioural change approach to corruption control in Nigeria.

“As differentiated from what used to happen in the past in which we tried to control corruption by the use of the legal means or sanction, now we are trying to do corruption control looking at the behaviour of the people and trying to understand what can be done to change people’s behaviour.

“As a community of practice, the forum provides an opportunity for linkage and engagement between a seemingly disparate world of theories, ideologies, lived experiences and public policy. At this opportune moment of democratic consolidation and transfer of power, this forum provides the opportunity for agenda setting and policy direction.”

On her part, the Deputy Country Director of MacArthur Foundation, Dr. Amina Salihu, noted that the foundation had to engage NISER and other top government policy think-tanks because it was looking for the opportunity to facilitate anti-corruption efforts, which would be different from the law and order approach.

 She said: “We needed to begin to understand what motives people and what makes people to do what they do and not do what they do not do. This search took us to the need for behavioural insights. That, for us, is just the choices that people make. We ask, what are the philosophical and economic underpinnings of people’s choices?

“We feel that if we are able to do that, we can do a lot better in terms of our anti-corruption efforts. The theme of this seminar shows that NISER absolutely understands the charge and knows what to do in pushing this effort. One thing we learnt from one of our convening is that the challenge of corruption actually affects different people differently, depending on their social background.”

The ABC series working paper, which was presented by Dr. Adebukola Daramola and Dr. Tosin Ilevbare stressed that efforts at tackling the phenomenon of corruption in Nigeria dated back several decades, but successes and progress have been minimal.

NISER Promises Actualising Behaviour Change in Nigeria

Yinka Kolawole in Osogbo

Although the narrative of how corruption has affected the development in Nigeria remains pervasive, there are institutions which have defied the odds to enthrone probity, transparency and accountability in how they engage in service delivery to the public.

At the Actualising Behaviour Change (ABC) series convened by the Nigeria Institute for Social and Economic Research (NISER) yesterday, stakeholders focused more on these positive stories, and how other institutions grappling with corruption can replicate such promising practices and achieve the desired results in terms of corruption control.

However, with specific reference to the transformation, which occurred at the Joint Admissions and Matriculation Board (JAMB), which used to be mired in corruption and poor service delivery, the third edition of the ABC Series presented NISER’s research findings on what specific policies were implemented by the tertiary institution’s admission body to seriously control corruption and improve service delivery.

Earlier in her opening remarks at the seminar, the Director-General of NISER, Professor Antonia Simbine, said: “This seminar was indeed important; it is another NISER/MacArthur Foundation Actualising Behaviour Change Series.

According to her, “It is our proudly unique platform for knowledge engagement among scholars, policy makers and bureaucrats of the behavioural change approach to corruption control in Nigeria.

“As differentiated from what used to happen in the past in which we tried to control corruption by the use of the legal means or sanction, now we are trying to do corruption control looking at the behaviour of the people and trying to understand what can be done to change people’s behaviour.

“As a community of practice, the forum provides an opportunity for linkage and engagement between a seemingly disparate world of theories, ideologies, lived experiences and public policy. At this opportune moment of democratic consolidation and transfer of power, this forum provides the opportunity for agenda setting and policy direction.”

On her part, the Deputy Country Director of MacArthur Foundation, Dr. Amina Salihu, noted that the foundation had to engage NISER and other top government policy think-tanks because it was looking for the opportunity to facilitate anti-corruption efforts, which would be different from the law and order approach.

 She said: “We needed to begin to understand what motives people and what makes people to do what they do and not do what they do not do. This search took us to the need for behavioural insights. That, for us, is just the choices that people make. We ask, what are the philosophical and economic underpinnings of people’s choices?

“We feel that if we are able to do that, we can do a lot better in terms of our anti-corruption efforts. The theme of this seminar shows that NISER absolutely understands the charge and knows what to do in pushing this effort. One thing we learnt from one of our convening is that the challenge of corruption actually affects different people differently, depending on their social background.”

The ABC series working paper, which was presented by Dr. Adebukola Daramola and Dr. Tosin Ilevbare stressed that efforts at tackling the phenomenon of corruption in Nigeria dated back several decades, but successes and progress have been minimal.