CONTRARY to general belief, the chairman, House of Representatives Committee on Financial Crimes, Honourable Kayode Oladele, on Monday, declared that the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC) was not actually fighting corruption in the country.
This is even as the EFCC acting chairman, Ibrahim Magu, declared that the commission was totally committed to the war against economic and financial crimes, including corruption, in the country.
According to Oladele, what the anti-corruption commission was currently doing was only to investigate and prosecute, adding that the body was prosecuting money laundering and corruption.
The House committee chairman made the assertion in his message at the first National Anti-Corruption Stakeholders’ Summit, with the theme, “Building national anti-corruption consensus in a multi-agency environment,” organised by the EFCC, in Abuja.
Oladele submitted that while prosecuting corrupt practices, there was never any efforts by the anti-graft agency to change minds of Nigerians, adding that the problem with the country was not corruption but impunity.
“If we want to fight corruption and change the system, we have to change the value system. The problem with Nigeria is not corruption but impunity. Nigerians have to stop buck passing and personal responsibility,” he said.
The lawmaker, however, made a strong case for the well-being of the staff of EFCC with a view to encouraging them to wage war against corruption without any hindrance, submitting that the bureaucratic bottleneck of the police should not be imposed on the EFCC.
He assured that the National Assembly would ensure improved budgetary allocation for EFCC in order for it to be well positioned to tackle corruption on all fronts.
Speaking earlier, the chairman, Senate Committee on Anti-Corruption and Financial Crimes, Senator Chukwuka Utazi, stated that efforts had to be made to push corruption out of the polity in the country.
According to him, the central role corruption had played in the lack of any appreciable progress on all indices of development and in the inability of successive governments in providing the basic needs of life for Nigerian populace and competing with its peers in the comity of nations was the main reason the people had to engage in consistent and habitual discussions on the subject of corruption.
“The rot engendered by corruption is such that public officers who did not use their position to corruptly enrich themselves and gain advantage for their cronies are regarded as failures and laggards who do not want others to benefit from them. It has become a burden weighing on the nation,” Utazi stated.
Magu, in his opening remarks on the occasion, entitled, “Together against corruption”, stated that Nigeria was at a critical phase in its evolution as a nation, adding that corruption had been identified as the greatest challenge undermining its development.
According to Magu, “this diagnosis is actually not new. What we have lacked in the past is the commitment to make a difference. I believe that we are uniquely placed to change the narrative as far as the fight against corruption in Nigeria is concerned.”
He assured that the anti-corruption commission was committed to the war against corruption, declaring that Nigerians had suffered for too long to be abandoned to the cruel fate imposed by crooks and thieves.
“For us at EFCC, I can tell you without fear of contradiction, that we are totally committed to the war against economic and financial crimes, including corruption. Our people have suffered for too long to be abandoned to the cruel fate imposed by crooks and thieves,” Magu said.
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