by Eze Eluchie,
Over the
years, each passing head of Nigeria's omnibus anti-corruption agency, the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission, has
from their involvement in sleaze and other impure activities served to
embarrass not only the law enforcement community, locally and internationally, but also added to the poor
perception of Nigeria (by Nigerians and the international community alike) in matters regarding corruption.
From Nuhu
Ribadu (who transformed the EFCC to a thuggish-Gestapo outfit doing the bidding
of then Head of State Olusegun Obasanjo) to Farida Waziri (who spent here
period in office hobnobbing with some characters her office was meant to
prosecute) to the immediate past helmsman, Ibrahim Lamorde (who was busy
diverting whatsoever the agency was recovering from ‘corrupt persons’ and ran
out of Nigeria, under the pretext of ‘going for medical treatment’ to avoid
appearing to defend sundry allegations before the Senate of the Federal
Republic), all former Chairmen of the EFCC had been disgraceful in office. All past heads of the EFCC have left
their offices 'better financially endowed' with 'bulging pockets' and leaving the rest of us wondering
how such scams could have been perpetuated under the guise of an entity
established to lead the ‘war against corruption’. There is likewise no believe or hope, whatsoever, that the newly appointed acting-Chairman of the EFCC, Ibrahim Magu, who himself is a veteran of the rot in the establishment, will be any different.
The root
problem of the EFCC lies in its foundations – it was set up by a most
fraudulent character, ex-dictator Olusegun Obasanjo, whose real objectives were
far removed from addressing corruption.
The way
forward is to scrap the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission, merge its
existing operations and activities with the already existing and well
established Special Fraud Unit (SFU) of the Nigeria Police Force (NPF), then build up the capacity of the SFU with specialized training's and beefing up the infrastructure and equipment available
to the SFU-NPF. Is the SFU-NPF populated by angels? Certainly no! But the
Police Force has a more established structure with inbuilt and time-tested
rot-sifting mechanisms which is more amenable to judicial review, scrutiny and legislative oversight.
In addition
to the people of Nigeria who have lost so much to the rot in the EFCC, others
who have been equally scammed by the unfortunate happening in the EFCC include
the various foreign missions which had bestowed huge sums in prepping up the
EFCC – save of course those foreign entities who merely used the EFCC to serve
as a ‘loot recovery agent’ to protect the foreign governments interests.
Are we safe writing on this topic? Hmmmm. Well, we already live in a very unsafe environment.
Are we safe writing on this topic? Hmmmm. Well, we already live in a very unsafe environment.
Let us scrap
the EFCC!
Picture: EFCC logo,
past Chairpersons of the EFCC: Nuhu Ribadu, Farida Waziri and Ibrahim Lamurde;
and acting Chair, Ibrahim Magu.
