A famous proverb in my country home posits that “instead of allowing the child of a native doctor to die of a common sickness, it is better that all the herbs in the forest are exhausted.
A famous proverb in my country home posits that “instead of allowing the child of a native doctor to die of a common sickness, it is better that all the herbs in the forest are exhausted.
” This, unfortunately, appears to be the new-found resolve of Nigeria’s Federal House of Representatives in their latest neurotic craze to panel-beat the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission - EFCC, into a docile, castrated and highly ineffectual contraption. This it seeks to achieve by amending the EFCC Act to allow for only Retired Judicial Officers from either the Supreme Court or the Federal Court of Appeal as Heads of the EFCC. This bill, if it sails through, would effectively pull the rug from under the feet of the incumbent Chairman of the Commission – Farida Waziri.
Admittedly, when one takes a critical appraisal of the way and manner in which the EFCC has conducted its affairs before now, it will not be out of place to conclude that the Commission has become as disappointing as “a wet gunpowder.” Nevertheless, it is patently inconceivable and utterly perplexing that our lawmakers would harbour the perfidious contemplation of turning the EFCC into a Rehabilitation Centre for Retired Judicial Pensioners, who, after retiring at the mandatory age of seventy years, would have come down with the natural challenges of senility and intellectual menopause.
Considering the fact that some of the past State Governors - who mostly decided who got elected into the Federal House of Representatives, are currently undergoing prosecution; and also judging from the recent comments of Rivers State Governor – Rotimi Amaechi in which he cautioned EFCC to leave the Governors alone and concentrate on chasing the Federal Government which, according to him, controls a larger chunk of national revenue (52%), it becomes clearly incontrovertible that this latest misadventure by the Federal lawmakers symbolizes another classic depiction of “the voice of Jacob and the hand of Esau” narrative.
It is instructive to note that another sister agency in the anti-graft crusade, the Independent Corrupt Practices Commission - ICPC, has always traditionally been under the headship of Retired Judicial Officers. What can we say of ICPC today if not that it has become a highly complicated disappointment to most Nigerians! The ICPC story is a disheartening tale of a Commission that will sit back and request that a criminal should come forth “patriotically” and report himself before the Commission begins investigation. At best, it is a Commission that has “eyes but cannot see and ears but cannot hear,” rather, it enjoins the public to do the seeing, the hearing and the reporting before it can swing into action to prosecute anybody. Little wonder it has become such a paralytic derelict in the fight against corruption.
The question is this: if this same Retired Judicial Officers have turned the ICPC into a “toothless pussy-cat,” what gives our omniscient legislators the assurance that they will do better if entrusted with the headship of the EFCC. Does it not amount to patriarchal tomfoolery to crave the redemption of EFCC from the Judiciary when this same Judicial Officers have supervised the systematic despoliation of the Judiciary, leaving it in a worse state than the Nigerian Police in terms of institutional decadence and delinquency.
If there is anything our lawmakers need to do to empower the EFCC, it is the strengthening of its operational capacity to deliver. One major handicap which greatly undermines the prosecutorial capacity of EFCC is what I call “the unnecessary manipulative gymnastics in our conventional law courts.” This, by definition, refers to a situation where a politician or public official who has looted us blind is arrested and taken to court for arraignment and prosecution; before you say “Jack Robinson,” the Court would adjourn for six months. By the time they are back in court after six months, (to borrow the words of my friend – an okada rider): “the ole go don chop the money finish!” To make matters worse, he will now pre-bargain his way into freedom.
Now that the House of Reps. members in concert with Governors have drawn up a “Marshal Plan” to emasculate the EFCC as well as abort, truncate and torpedo the anti-corruption fight, it has become absolutely desirable, if not imperative, for President Jonathan to break loose from the shackles of passivity and the cocoon of cold-bloodedness by taking urgent and necessary steps to facilitate the creation of s special court dedicated to the trial and prosecution of corrupt public officials. Additionally, the operational independence and institutional autonomy of the EFCC should be strengthened and guaranteed. The issues of funding, manpower adequacy as well as specialized training for EFCC operatives should be given undiluted attention. Above all, the amendment of the EFCC Act to allow for the forfeiture of proceeds of corrupt enrichment by corrupt officials as well as the removal of the offensive “immunity clause” from our statutes book are salient areas which should occupy the legislative attention of our lawmakers.
Strangely, it is only in a banana republic like Nigeria that you would find the Legislature – in solidarity with the Presidency, embarking on what could rightly be described as “a transformation against the people.” While the Presidency is bent on terrorizing Nigerians with the threat of subsidy removal, the Federal lawmaker (House of Representatives) are determined to propagate corruption with dogged evangelism by contriving all manner of legislative impediments designed to cripple and demobilize the anti-corruption agency.
Perhaps, the real impetus for the fight against corruption rests squarely on the shoulders of the Nigerian people. Indeed, the real challenge to our claim as a democratic polity lies in our preparedness to develop the needed political consciousness, cultivate the discipline, radiate the patriotic zeal and demonstrate a sense of responsibility needed to hold our public officials accountable for their actions and decisions while in office. In essence, the fight against corruption should be a fight for all Nigerians rather than a fight designated for EFCC alone.
Confessedly, it would amount to courting disappointment if I make a pretence of harbouring the expectation that I am on the same pedestal with the rest of my fellow countrymen on the aforementioned issues. The sad and painful reality is that most Nigerians are held captive by the tyranny of their stomach, their endless quest for survival, and the egotism of their self-preservation, that they would, most assuredly, consider these reflections as “the fanciful postulations of an utopian philosopher.” Worse, some amongst us who are endowed with the economic and mental facility to entertain these thoughts would rather prefer to parcel these concerns prayerfully to God in the belief that “it is not of he that willeth nor of he that runeth, but of the Lord that showeth mercy.” And while we “watch and pray,” while we “wait on the Lord,” the hemorrage of our national treasury accelerates with frightening intensity, even as the economy is placed on a life support system!
Worst, the few amongst us who, notoriously, claim to be endowed with Abrahamic faith will rather console themselves in the knowledge that “life is turn by turn.” In other words, “let the politicians gyrate, let them eat, let them steal as much as they can, for tomorrow it will be our turn.” To these set of Nigerian, they seem unperturbed by the fact that our rulers are busily devising new ways to amplify their aptitude for corruption and criminal looting (progressing from stealing millions to billions and, soonest, trillions of naira). And so, while we wait and pray that it will be our turn tomorrow, while we bask and salivate in the complacency of such negative optimism, it becomes most appropriate to caution that if we fail to do something about the rate at which our thieving rulers are cruising along the speed-lane of corruption, by tomorrow we are all dead!!!
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