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EFCC: Corruption and the Rest of Us Selective justice, political persecution and selfish agenda are the new buzzwords amongst those disturbed by the recent arrests and prosecution of those suspected of corrupt practices. The question a rationale person should ask is whether the “victims” of Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC) are innocent of allegations of corrupt enrichments and fraudulent dealings. It is difficult to fault glaring evidences of billions of Naira linked to a convicted former Inspector General of Police and impeached governor of a Southern state of Nigeria. There was also admission of bribery between Ministers and the leadership of National Assembly for legislative passage apart from the display of a mountain of Naira notes in the legislative chamber. While some judicial officers are being probed for sleaze, young dubious businessmen are cooling their feet in cells for defrauding foreigners of hard currencies.
So far the war appears to have avoided
the emotional parochialism of ethnicity, religion, tribalism, societal
class and political leaning. The suspects cut across regional
boundaries, tiers and arms of government. They were in the past,
unfortunately too, celebrities in our society and almost worshipped
for their stupendous riches. We may recall how our traditional rulers
doled out chieftaincy titles to unbeaten 419kingspins, government
decorated crooks in public office with prestigious honours, tertiary
institutions conferred honorary doctorate degrees on fraudulent
politicians, communities organized special receptions for professional
prostitutes from foreign lands and even religious bodies gave
prominent positions to those whose sou rces of wealth were shrouded in
mystery.
Interestingly most of the suspects in
the EFCC’s net or under investigation are not just big fishes but had
at one time or the other held top leadership positions in government
and business circles. One may wonder which advice the corrupt leaders
had for their followers on corruption and other malpractices before
nemesis caught up with them. They might have likely campaigned against
corruption, while hiding under the same set of rules and regulations
to perpetrate evils of nepotism and selfish-enrichment to the
bewilderments of their followers who may be sanctioned for raising
eyebrows.
Startlingly, some elderly and highly
corrupt individuals who have enough to sustain them for life continue
to accumulate wealth as if the aggrandizements would guarantee their
life to eternity. Their ostentatious lifestyles encourage and promote
corruption-of-necessity amongst poor workers who must struggle
to supplement their meager remuneration by all means to provide the
necessities of life for the family like food, medication, shelter and
possibly education for their wards. We may recall the antics of lesser
mortals to survive like junior policemen at checkpoint with beggarly
disposition to commuters on highways; civil servants desire cuts from
the inflated costs of supply from contractors; the non-remunerated
reporters demand gratification for media assignments; the alfa/pastors
who have no other means of liveli hood than to use God’s name to
extort believers; lecturers force and sell pirated work in the name of
handouts to students as mandatory credit to pass exam; students forge
tuition fees to get additional pocket money from their parents; girls
engage in prostitution to make end meet, workers fake receipts to
justify accomplished task and even beggars inflict injuries on their
bodies and that of their children to win sympathy of patrons. These
poor groups were mostly caught and paraded as criminals for public
condemnation until the emergence of EFCC, which has now beamed its
searchlight on the big guns.
Corruption is not only rampant in the
public service, it is perpetrated in the priv ate sector too where
financial institutions use seductive ladies, as marketing executives,
to lure more customers to their products and service. There is also
the production of substandard goods by manufacturers to heap up
profits; exploitation of tariffs and duties by importers to weaken
competitors; systematic manipulation of accounting procedures to boost
the financial rating of companies; evasions of taxes which retard our
economy; inducements of regulatory and public institutions to beat the
law of the land and submissions of plagiarized reports for ridiculous
consultations’ fees.
The systematic and professional fraud at
high places make one to wonder who deserve the dubious title of
Robinhood of Nigeria< /B> between treasury looters who invest
their booties abroad and 419 fraudsters who defraud foreigners and
invest their ill-gotten gains at home, when we know that the gullible
419 victims and foreign collaborators had the intent to defraud our
nation.
While it is possible to discover
sincerely corrupt-free citizens in an unpredictable and turbulent
society, we have no excuse to harbour any corrupt tendencies,
especially with a new development where sins of the past can be
unearthed, which makes 2006 the deciding year for the final onslaught
on corruption before the real D-day. It is a lesson for those who are
extremely clever today but whose shady deals, if there are, woul d
ultimately be unraveled sooner or later.
The government should not only use EFCC
for arrest and prosecution of suspected culprits but also provide a
mechanism to prevent the malaise from spreading in our society. The
system and the operators must provide the enabling environment where
citizens can live within their means. It can introduce curricula in
schools on the malaise of corruption and recognize and reward those
who expose corrupt malpractices. Those who declare and return their
loots, without official prompting deserve immunity from arrest and
prosecution. While the policy of accounting for past misdeed is
justifiable, it requires extreme caution and moral suasion. Because it
is doubtful if the nation’s prisons and cells can accommodate influx
of big and lesser evils of corruption.
Other areas that require effective
reform and reengineering include promoting the right of every
qualified citizen to be actively engaged through economic activities,
provision of realistic wage and decongestion of urban cities by
deployment of infrastructure to rural areas. There is also the need
for the diversification of the economy to agricultural and productive
sectors not only to generate full employment but also to improve our
GDP.
The war has gathered momentum but we
should not celebrate victory yet as everybody must now start to
reappraise him or herself. Are we ourselves clean? But are we all
corrupt?
Yushau A. Shuaib
Wuye Estate, Abuja, Nigeria
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