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Madaki O. Ameh
Legal Practioner
currently a
Chevening Scholar at the Centre for Energy, Petroleum and Mineral Law
and Policy, University of Dundee, Scotland, U.K.
EFCC: AN
OVERBURDENED AGENCY
OBASANJO AND THE YEARS THE LOCUSTS HAVE EATEN
TOWARDS A USEFUL
POLICE IN NIGERIA
TOO MUCH HYPE ABOUT
NIGERIA'S OIL
MAKING POVERTY HISTORY IN
AFRICA BEYOND DEBT RELIEF AND AID
BEFORE WRITING
OFF THE US INTELLIGENCE
REPORT
SOLUDO'S FIRST MISTAKE
Curbing Corruption in Nigeria:
Exploring Alternative Strategies
WHY NIGERIANS SHOULD NOT PAY
TAX
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EFCC: AN OVERBURDENED AGENCY
by Madaki O. Ameh
A number of very
interesting developments have taken place in Nigeria in recent weeks,
as the fight against corruption bites harder. Many public office
holders are expectedly maintaining a low profile, as no one knows who
will be next in the dragnet of the Economic and Financial Crimes
Commission (EFCC).
With the recent
arrest of Governor Diepreye Alamieyeseigha
in London and his well publicized travails, which is by far the most
high profile experience so far in the anti corruption fight of the
Obasanjo administration, many skeptics are becoming convinced that the
fight may be sincere after all. This confidence is also heightened by
the fact that the arrest and trial are taking place within the British
judicial system, which is immune from the provisions of Section 308 of
the Nigerian 1999 Constitution, which has become a major shield for
the albatross of corruption in
Nigeria. Without splitting hairs over whether or not Chief
Alamieyeseigha enjoys immunity in the UK, which for me is a moot
question and a pure academic exercise, as the positions advanced in
Nigeria have no bearing over the decisions which will be eventually
reached by the British Courts, the important question for most
Nigerians is how this trial will be concluded, and what lessons other
Nigerians in positions of leadership will learn from the current
travails of the Bayelsa State Governor.
The task of eliminating corruption as a way
of life in Nigeria and thereby ensure that State funds are channeled
towards the overall development of the country is a daunting one, and
all well meaning Nigerians are fully in support of this fight. In
fact, they are impatient with the slow pace of the Nigerian judicial
system which has ensured that all these years, no meaningful trial has
been brought to its logical conclusion with the culprits brought to
justice. The pervading fear is that true to type, most of these cases
pending currently will start suffering the usual adjournments, once
they stop making headlines in the press, and eventually the suspects
will escape with all their allegedly stolen funds. The fact that
there are many such cases which have disappeared into the dustbin of
history makes such fears real indeed.
At the heart of all the efforts towards
bringing corrupt officials to book is the EFCC, whose Chairman, Alhaji
Nuhu Ribadu appears to be fighting a solo fight in this direction, as
the successes recorded so far are attributable to his unrelenting
nature, rather than any enduring structures in Nigeria to address such
crimes against the people. In fact, the prayer of most Nigerians is
that Alhaji Ribadu should neither be removed from the position, nor
meet with any fate that will prevent him from continuing in his
single-minded determination to do his job well. As pointed out in a
recent Guardian Editorial, this phenomenon is not good enough, and the
Commission needs to urgently set up structures to ensure that the
fight against corruption is institutionalized in the day to day lives
of Nigerians. The recent reported graduation of the first set of
cadets of the Commission shows some rays of hope in this direction,
and at last, the Commission appears set to have enough personnel to
tackle the enormous task ahead. In spite of the allegations of
selective justice often leveled against the Commission, the truth
still remains that in none of the arrests carried out by the
Commission has it been found that the allegations of corruption
against the erring officials were frivolous. The often cited
criticism that other criminals are not being hounded at the same time,
and that the perceived enemies of the President are the ones at the
centre of the arrests appears to ignore the fact that, with limited
resources, the EFCC cannot get at all the criminals at the same time,
and so must start from somewhere. Patience is therefore required, and
efforts must be made to strengthen their ranks and review their
operational procedures, so that they do not become another source of
harassment of innocent Nigerians. Recent newspaper reports already
indicate that some persons are posing as the Chairman of EFCC and its
officials, and either extorting money from would be suspects, or
scamming unsuspecting foreigners. Even though this is not unexpected,
as success has its price, the main challenge for the Commission is to
stay fully cognizant of these criticisms and constantly review its
processes to ensure that the bad eggs among its ranks, who must be
there, as with all things Nigerian, are identified early and quickly
shown the way out in a way that sends a definite message.
One interesting
aspect of the rise of the EFCC is the fact that, within barely two
years of its existence, it has become the preferred channel for making
complaints of criminal activities in the hope that such complaints
will be investigated. These days, Nigerians find any strenuous means
of making their complaints assume the status of a financial crime, to
bring it within the purview of the EFCC. It will not be surprising
if, from the archives of the Commission, one finds ridiculous
petitions of financial crimes being leveled against each other by
business associates and even estranged partners, all in the hope of
rending vendetta, if only to teach such erring people a bitter lesson,
as the EFCC net is certainly more difficult to come out of than the
conventional Police detention. And therein lies the challenge for the
Police Force, whose image has been so battered that ordinary Nigerians
would rather take their routine complaints to a specialized agency of
the government targeted at specialized crimes.
The fight against
crime in Nigeria transcends corruption, which is just one aspect of
the many crimes committed daily against the Nigerian people. To
effectively address this, radical steps need to be taken to reform the
Police Force and restore the confidence of the average Nigerian in its
ability to handle criminal complaints transparently to the end. One
step in that direction may well be to address the issue of leadership,
by going out of the normal process of appointing Inspectors General of
Police from the ranks of the most senior Police officers. I would
recommend that someone who has warmed himself into the hearts of most
Nigerians in the fight against crime, like Alhaji Nuhu Ribadu, could
be appointed the next Inspector General of Police. Apart from giving
the Police Force a new image of service delivery and transparency,
this will also go a long way in ensuring that the current burden which
the EFCC carries for practically every crime in Nigeria where money is
mentioned, is reduced to the barest minimum. In such a situation, the
EFCC could become an organ of the regular Police Force, since the
overall responsibility of fighting crime in Nigeria still rests with
the Police, and Commissions like the EFCC and ICPC would not have been
necessary if the Police were living up to their responsibilities. I
know that it is easy to scoff at this suggestion as an overkill, and
apologists of the status quo may be quick to say that after all,
Alhaji Ribadu is just an Assistant Commissioner of Police, but I am
firmly of the belief that one’s rank has nothing to do with
effectiveness on the job, and where talent is identified, it should be
tapped to the fullest. In other countries, relatively young men, such
as President Bill Clinton and Prime Minister Tony Blair have been
known to assume the leadership of the world’s leading countries in
their early 40s, and those countries were better off for it. I am
sure the task of leading the Nigerian Police Force is not more arduous
than that of leading any of these two countries, and age should not be
equated with knowledge and experience, as appears to be the case in
Nigeria. [back
to Top News]
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"One
interesting aspect of the rise of the EFCC is the fact that, within
barely two years of its existence, it has become the preferred
channel for making complaints of criminal activities in the hope
that such complaints will be investigated. These days, Nigerians
find any strenuous means of making their complaints assume the
status of a financial crime, to bring it within the purview of the
EFCC. It will not be surprising if, from the archives of the
Commission, one finds ridiculous petitions of financial crimes being
leveled against each other by business associates and even estranged
partners, all in the hope of rending vendetta, if only to teach such
erring people a bitter lesson, as the EFCC net is certainly more
difficult to come out of than the conventional Police detention.
And therein lies the challenge for the Police Force, whose image has
been so battered that ordinary Nigerians would rather take their
routine complaints to a specialized agency of the government
targeted at specialized crimes."
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