THE Economic and Financial Crimes Commission appears reinvigorated and rejuvenated for its traditional role of fighting economic and financial crimes. It seems to be experiencing a new lease of life in the manner it has been going after some former governors and other powerful untouchables in the expired dispensation of President Goodluck Jonathan. Even though the EFCC was never at any time scrapped, it went into a state of hibernation for several years under that administration. It was in fact comatose, merely waking up from its interminable slumber to roar at imaginary criminals accused of economic or financial crime. This, it seemed, was to tell Nigerians it was not altogether dead even if still gasping for breath on life support. When it appeared to do what it was established to do, it was careful to select its prey and wasted no time in muddling up its own evidence in a manner that made it easy for its case to be thrown out of the courts on some flimsy technicality.
Nigerians were neither blind nor deaf to what was happening. They could both hear and see what was happening. They knew the EFCC wasn’t as ineffective as it was making out. The Commission, it can be said, had been able to read the writing on the wall in terms of the disposition of the Jonathan administration to fighting corruption. An administration that was headed by a man who didn’t mind splitting hair on the actual meaning of corruption, one who seemed to have handed the key of the national treasury to many of his key aides to do as they deemed fit, was not one that would fight corruption wholeheartedly or support anyone or organisation wanting to do that.
The EFCC therefore knew its limits and was not going to go beyond it. Its gradual fall into ineffectuality actually started under Farida Waziri, and came into full maturation during the tenure of Ibrahim Lamorde. This commission or the people that headed it at any point in time were only as effective as Abuja wanted them to be. Where they were allowed to do their job, they could be quite effective. They could also play the fool, where and when they know they will not get the required support.
In spite of all the accusations of selective prosecution of criminal cases against the EFCC under Nuhu Ribadu, hardly could Nigerians find anyone prosecuted at that time that did not have a case to answer. The point made against the EFCC was always that there were other people who were not prosecuted but could be prosecuted. Nigerians who felt we must start the anti-corruption battle from somewhere had a simple response- whoever succeeded Obasanjo could make it their business to carry on from where Obasanjo stopped, by going after those whose criminal activities he (Obasanjo) chose to turn a blind eye to. But what could not and cannot now be denied is that the EFCC enjoyed the support of Obasanjo which made it possible for the Commission to register its presence among Nigerians. But under Jonathan (to skip the Umar Yar’Adua interregnum), the Commission was simply on its own, virtually disowned. Its existence was only on paper. There were even reports that the Commission was being strangulated financially, making it difficult to train its officers or execute its activities.
It simply went into a deep slumber at some point. When it stirred at all, it was without interest. Where it roared, it could not bite as it appeared to have its mouth in muzzles. But since Mohammadu Buhari took over, the body seems to be waking up to the call of duty. In a spate of just a few weeks it has arraigned no less than three ex-governors accused of either siphoning funds outside their states or running these states aground financially. From Ohakim Ikedi, Murtala Nyako to Sule Lamido and sons, it has been the same story. It could be argued, of course, that these governors had immunity while in office and so could not be prosecuted. But the reason they were not prosecuted went beyond that.
But now that the EFCC seems to be waking up again to its responsibilities, there is the concern that it might end up making a hash of the cases it has been prosecuting. From what is now happening with the spate of bails being granted these accused persons, especially former governors, it is possible none of the accused individuals and those that might be prosecuted after them would give up their alleged loot. They might end up not returning what they have been accused of looting from their states. As things seem to stand, these series of prosecutions could provide the accused persons the clean bill of health to feel they were wrongly accused, leading to their being rehabilitated into society to enjoy whatever they might have taken at the expense of their people.
The real reason for this shoddy handling of the cases, this clear attempt to provide an escape route to the accused persons, is what I call the big man syndrome which seems to forbid the prosecution or jailing of certain categories of Nigerians such as ex-governors, ministers and such other persons considered too big to go to jail or be made to account for their activities while in office. There is a deep irony in the middle of this attitude. While Nigerians are quick to condemn corruption and call for the prosecution of corrupt persons, they are also too quick to question the basis for jailing an accused person once such is considered a big man or woman. After the initial euphoria that the law respects nobody- after this comes the sentimental considerations that the accused has learned their ‘lesson’ and should be set free even when the accused admitted to no crime to say nothing of making restitution.
When we call for the prosecution of corrupt public officers, our desire seems to be in proving that these criminally-minded big men and women could be held to account even if such a process does not lead to the recovery of what the accused took unlawfully. What is also clear is that even the big men do not see why they should be made accountable. Nigerians saw these with Sule Lamido who reportedly wondered aloud if he was now a prisoner after the order was issued that he be remanded in prison. In just a matter of days, Lamido, his sons and their associate, had been released like other ex-governors who had been granted bail, to go home and enjoy the Eid-el-Fitr celebrations. This approach of the courts or the EFCC to criminal prosecution is not what Nigeria needs if we are to win the war against corruption.
– See more at: http://www.vanguardngr.com/2015/07/efcc-big-man-syndrome-and-anti-corruption-fight/#sthash.bmQrs2oo.dpuf
END
Be the first to comment