EFCC Mobilises Civil Society Against Corruption

By

Nduka Uzuakpundu

ozieni@yahoo.com

President Olusegun Obasanjo would seem to have made an anti-corruption statement: that given the political will and public support, it’s a war—in the Nigerian context—from which many heroes and heroines could emerge. His understanding of just how corrupt the Nigerian political and economic system could be, especially when government—and the rest of civil society—aren’t on the quiviv, has very well been sharpened by, say, the shuddering crash of the Nigeria Airways and the Nigerian National Shipping Line. Obasanjo will tell you, virtually off by the heart—and, in clearly graphic details—the brimming treasure he left at the national carrier on the eve of his departure from office back in 1979. That, well over 25 aircraft melted away, unaccounted for, from the fleet of the Nigeria Airways, was an index of just how alarming corruption—and a perspicacious Obasanjo was right to have seen it that way—had dangerously sunk its roots in the Nigerian system. Even so, it has taken Obasanjo’s belief—a belief that has his ring of wonted stubbornness to it—that, since his unprohesied second coming, Nigeria, for which he has fought, gallantly, to keep as an indivisible and united country—with all her gargantuan human and natural resources, cannot groan, endlessly—and, ultimately, sink under the massive burden of corruption. And, so, the erection of the Independent Corrupt Practices and other related Crimes Commission (ICPC). And, so, again, with a familiarly informed and defensible stubbornness, for which Obasanjo is exquisitely famous, the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC). Today, the message Obasanjo takes to public officers is that the fear of Mr. Nuhu Ribadu—the uncompromising skipper of EFCC—is the very beginning of wisdom. Obasanjo will unreel to you, if you care, the sad story of the Alamieyeseghas, who, in their famed political wisdom, thought differently, that an attempt to dribble Ribadu, disdainfully, by hiding behind diplomatic or gubernatorial impunity (whatever the meaning of that)—was a cheap possibility. To that extent, Obasanjo could be said to be winning the war against corruption. In Ribadu, he has aired his belief that the anti-corruption crusade is not just an ill-defined North-South exercise, but, also, one that has a genuine national outlook. And, so, how really should the anti-corruption be waged, such that it becomes a national culture? What strategies—beyond what the Obasanjo administration has done, so far—should be adopted with an eye to making the political terrain too hostile for corrupt practices to bubble? The questions could he as multi-faceted as corruption itself. But Mrs. Joy Okocha, one of the secretaries of the National Council of Women Societies (NCWS), thinks that the war against corruption should be carried to the domain of public servants—basically in the ministries and other government agencies. She said, at Fix Nigeria Working Group meeting, which took place, recently, at the EFCC Training School, Karu, Abuja, that “public servants are the ones who teach both military men and civilian politicians how to get corrupted—and siphon public money into their private pockets.” Today’s crisis of corruption, against which the Obasanjo administration is engaged in an epic battle, has a bold signature of the unreformed public service system boldly stamped on it. That explains why some participants at the Fix Nigeria meeting were more interested in a further reform of the public service at both national and state levels, just as they also called on the EFCC (or ICPC) to beam its search light on the local governments, who, far from generating, creative development ideas, prefer to sit dishonourably idly by, expecting budgetary allocation from the Federation Accounts, which, in agreement with Okocha, they flagitiously misappropriate.

Pause for a while and imagine just how huge a difference it would make should the L.G.s get actively involved in national development. It’s part of the crisis of corruption that most of Nigeria’s major cities—alongside Lagos, Aba, Onitsha, Port Harcourt, Enugu, Warri, Benin, Kano, Kaduna, Abuja, Zaria etc—are in a bizarre competition for a golden trophy for the filthiest. It smells of corruption that, in all these major cities, with local governments operating within them, the streets are littered with plastic bottles, all sorts of polythene-based product—some of which are dumped irresponsibly in drains. Why won’t there be floods! Why won’t there be swarms of mosquitoes, at the price of public weal! The L.G.s have—since they are corrupt, and are accomplices in acts injurious to public health—lost their raison d’etre. Ribadu should act. He should also take on elected representatives—at the state and national levels—who gladly collect what one commentator called “constituency development allocation” (CDA), often up to the tune of N20 million, but empty it, criminally, into private ends.

And, because corruption has been identified as a nationwide problem, it was suggested, at the Fix Nigeria meeting, that the campaign against it should be carried to the schools—from primary to tertiary: let the pupils and students get know its diverse colours, and faces and shapes; what evil effects it could have on national development; and what strategy to adopt, in order to contain it. Some participants made the point that, in order to sustain the anti-corruption gains already recorded by the Obasanjo administration, there was a need for a mobilisation of civil society, and harness its plenteous resources, such that, empowered, it could, cheerfully, hold government and its agents accountable. By now, the Obasanjo example ought to have disabused the mind of civil society that the war against corruption could be won. That, indeed, it’s civil society—and not the faceless government, which every aggrieved victim of misdeeds by public officials or elected representatives would naturally chide for non-performance—that has the unlimited power to wage a sustainable—and winning war against corruption.

The same war may have to be carried to suspected areas where terrorism could surface. Thus, the Nigerian Financial Intelligence Unit (NFIU), augmented by the Bush administration, is combating corruption, as exemplified by the linkage between foreign money and money laundering, on the one hand, and financing terrorism, on the other.

Mr Daniel Idei, of the NFIU, said the agency was also examining anti-terrorism financing (ATF)—in its effort to ensure that, come 2007, there would he a peaceful election. The NFIU intends to work in close association with some 15,000 non-governmental organisations, nationwide, towards seeing to it that foreign donors’ funds meant for development activities are not use for unhealthy activities that could dislocate the country’s democracy and security.

*Nduka Uzuakpundu is a Lagos-based journalist