U.S.-Nigeria Trade Council endorses FlagIT app, commends FG, FRSC, AFF

Atlanta, GA. USA. Monday January 20, 2020: The US-Nigeria Trade Council, a body that specializes in facilitating trade and investments between the United States and Nigeria, on behalf of Nigerians in the diaspora (United States) hereby endorses the Flag’It App, a mobile technology Application Portal recently launched by the Akin Fadeyi Foundation for reporting corruption. We enjoin Nigerians in the diaspora to download the App as they would find it valuable in reporting encounters of corruption whenever they travel to Nigeria.

We express delight and declare this initiative as indication that Nigeria is fast moving in the direction of accountability and transparency. We congratulate President Muhammadu Buhari for lending his weight behind the Flag’It App, especially as the Presidency and other major government agencies were well represented at the launching which took place at the Yar’Adua Centre, Abuja recently. Evidently, no serious-minded government would sit pretty and allow corruption to fester. We commend the Akin Fadeyi Foundation for developing such innovative app, and thereby, empowering Nigerians to confront the endemic corruption in our social milieu. The “the Flag’It” App which empowers Nigerians to report corruption is a commendable national reset agenda capable of bringing about a radical change that will enable the ease of doing business in Nigeria once citizens can report public officials who abuse their positions and also constitute a stumbling block within the process chain.

We congratulate the Akin Fadeyi Foundation on the scores of milestones recorded from its ‘Corruption Not in My Country’ drama skits, an initiative which has gained traction with huge impact of the project on citizens within and outside Nigeria. These dramatizations and the messaging style are appropriate for the fight against petty and retail corruption because it challenges our normative culture of impudence and endemic corruption.

The Trade Council commend the FRSC Corp Marshal, Dr. Boboye Oyeyemi, for buying into the vision of the Flag’It App and for being the first government agency to come onboard the App. This action is a bold gesture and a clear commitment of his leadership at the FRSC to transparency, accountability and excellent service delivery”. We hereby urge the President to direct other federal government institutions to begin onboarding the FlagIt App as this would signal to the global community that Nigeria was indeed serious and irrevocably committed to its fight against institutional corruption in the country. For us at the Trade Council, the FlagIt App is a robust complement to the existing national anti-corruption efforts of the Buhari administration and we call on this government to tap into the opportunities, the Flag’It App offers especially in its continued drive for more foreign investment.

There is no further demonstration to bolster the confidence of Investors than opening your public institutions processes to accountability, transparency and excellent service delivery.

The US-Nigeria Trade council also commended the MacArthur Foundation for supporting this initiative and for lending its weight behind creative social change programs globally to ensure the enthronement of transparency and the stamping out of corruption.

The Flag’IT App is a mobile and web-based App developed by the Akin Fadeyi Foundation which empowers citizens to report corruption, demand for accountability and excellent service delivery from government institutions. It was launched on the 10th of October, 2019 at the Shehu Musa Yar’Adua Centre in Abuja at an event that was attended by dignitaries from the civil society, government agencies and the Media. Nigerians have since begun to download the App, with 14 reported cases and 7 already treated.