EFCC, ICPC overhaul Central to Buhari’s Corruption Fight

There must be total overhaul of existing institutions saddled with the responsibility of fighting corruption for the war against graft being proposed by the incoming administration of Muhammadu Buhari to be won, stakeholders have said.

Specifically, they say institutions such as the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC), Independent Corrupt Practices and other related offences Commission (ICPC), the police and judiciary must be strengthened and adequately funded.

The stakeholders, including Itse Sagay (SAN), a legal scholar, professor of Law and human rights activist; Olisa Agbakoba, a former president of Nigerian Bar Association (NBA); Sope Williams-Elegbe, senior lecturer in Law, University of Lagos and Research Fellow, University of Stellenbosch and Bismarck Rewane, chief executive, Financial Derivatives Company (FDC), were unanimous in their submissions that the institutions must be independent and must be adequately funded to be able to discharge their responsibilities without any form of influence or intimidation from any arm of government.

“We must erect institutions that will be protected from executive interference. All the anti-corruption institutions such as the EFCC, ICPC, police, judiciary etc, must be controlled and funded independent of the executive. Now, when you have built that, you can now talk about rule of law. The rule of law can only work when you design strong institutions to support it. For instance, if a police officer is doing what he thinks is right, he will not be afraid that he might be fired by the president,” says Agbakoba.

Rewane in his April 8 note at the Lagos Business School Monthly Economic News and Views, said, “Buhari, should as a matter of urgency embark on restructuring of major institutions for efficiency and judicious allocation of resources.

“There should be a strong and incorruptible anti-corruption head of EFCC and ICPC; immediate restructuring of NNPC. This is to ensure elimination of leakages and to be more efficient.”

According to the foremost economist, the presence of fiscal gap requires that there must be borrowing, but wisely, adding, “Creditor discipline and covenants will keep Nigeria in line.”

However, they say that this restructuring should start from the leadership through declaration of assets, a development, they argue, would trickle down the ladder in terms of compliance.

The president-elect, General Buhari, had before and after the March 28 presidential election restated his will to fight corruption in the country, saying government officials and other agents of state who work to subvert the nation’s constitution will not go unpunished. Political pundits say Buhari’s corruption fight promise was one of the salient reasons why he won the poll.

The World Bank had said that an estimated $400 billion of the country’s oil revenue had been stolen or misspent between 1960 and 2012. Analysts said that the staggering amount of money could have translated into millions of vaccinations for children; thousands of kilometres of roads; hundreds of schools, hospitals and water treatment facilities that never came to be.

Speaking on the backdrop of the premium placed on the fight against corruption by the incoming All Progressives Congress (APC)-led Federal Government, in relation to the alleged non-adherence to the rule of law, Agbakoba said there was need to first erect institutions that will be free from executive meddlesomeness.

According to him, “I think the first thing is that the Nigerian political architecture is fundamentally cracked. Unless we fix the crack, I don’t see how we can make any meaningful progress. By this I mean, all attempts to forge a political process may amount to a waste of time unless we recognise our diversity and do something about it. We cannot live in denial of the diversity. But as long as we continue to carry on as if all is well, we will continue to build on a sinking foundation. That is one.”

The foremost human rights activist further suggested that the message must be “clear that there will be response from government and that corruption will be severely punished. We must identify those institutions that deepen democracy. The National Assembly should identify such institutions and directly manage them by determining who should head them and determine their budgets. This way, the president will not have direct control over them”.

Sagay said the incoming administration must show commitment and be determined to fight corruption, irrespective of who is involved.

“It is about commitment to the fight corruption. Anyone who is involved in corruption must be prosecuted. The present procedure is not helping matters where those who are being prosecuted hire Senior Advocates of Nigeria (SAN) and cases are dragged for a period of 12 years by virtue of endless injunctions, eventually they get struck out. The courts are very stubborn and are contributing to the problem; they are not helping matters in this case,” he said.

“Another problem is that many of our judges are brought up in old fashioned way and they want things to continue that way. What I think should be done is that they should institute a procedural rule that any case of corruption that is filed in a court must be dispensed with within a given period of time. Like I said, it is a matter of commitment,” Sagay further said.

Williams-Elegbe noted that there must be political will to achieve the desired result.

“Our laws against corruption are fine, but they are not implemented and so are not working. Judicial and police reform is long term commitment, but there is little political will to do this as no one wants to empower the machinery that may ultimately come after them,” she said.

According to her, “You know there are three arms of government in Nigeria, the executive, legislature and the judiciary. It is up to the executive to get the judiciary to perform the roles it thinks will help the fight against corruption. Again, what they can do is to make sure that executive agencies are working without interferences. It means that agencies that have to do with high-level or white-collar crimes are strengthened; strong persons of integrity must be at the head of such institutions, they must also make sure that such agencies get proper funding.”

Friday Ameh, energy analyst, said, “Buhari must show example by declaring his assets which should be followed by all other elected and political leaders.”

ZEBULON AGOMUO