EFCC and the politics of combating corruption in Nigeria (2003-2012)
| Pages | 725-747 |
| Published date | 03 October 2016 |
| DOI | https://doi.org/10.1108/JFC-04-2015-0024 |
| Date | 03 October 2016 |
| Author | Akume T. Albert,F.C. Okoli |
| Subject Matter | Accounting & Finance,Financial risk/company failure,Financial crime |
EFCC and the politics of
combating corruption in
Nigeria (2003-2012)
Akume T. Albert
Department of Public Administration, Kaduna Polytechnic,
Kaduna, Nigeria, and
F.C. Okoli
Department of Public Administration and Local Government Studies,
University of Nigeria, Nsukka, Nigeria
Abstract
Purpose – This paper aims to assess if the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC) has
been effective in combating corruption in Nigeria from 2003-2012.
Design/methodology/approach – The paper adopted a documentary analytical approach.
Findings – The organization has not been effective in combating corruption in Nigeria.
Research limitations/implications – The study is between 2003-2012.
Practical implications – There is a need to correct those identied inhibitors that undermined the
Commission’s capacity, such as intrusive government interference, lack of autonomy, poor funding and
weak laws, among others, to mitigate corruption.
Social implications – Eliminating those identied constraints will remove the incentive to be
corrupt, thereby curbing the desire to be corrupt.
Originality/value – This paper is an original assessment of the EFCC’s effectiveness in combating
corruption in Nigeria during the specied period.
Keywords Politics, Mandate, Combat corruption, EFCC
Paper type Case study
Introduction
The state and its institutions are signicant to the lives of the people; however, this
relevance can be undermined due to corruption by its agents. The present distrust
expressed by the people towards the Nigerian state, its leadership and institutions is a
consequence of corruption that has continued to affect the lives of the citizens adversely.
Such an unpalatable situation calls to question the need for the people to subject
themselves to the control of the state. Evidently, corruption continues to concentrate
public wealth in the hands of a disproportionate and lazy few (Kupolati, 1990 in Jega,
2007, p. 198). This explains why in the past 45 years, close to $600bn was generated from
oil resources without much to show for it in terms of socio-infrastructural (Iyare, 2008,
p. 35) development. The culture of corruption that is pervasive has permitted the
ourishing of all forms of informal economic activities that are both illegal and
unprotable to the Nigerian state. Consequently, the society has produced some
unscrupulous citizens who have promoted drug-trafcking, advance fee fraud and other
nancial malpractices (Lame, 2001, p. 15) with its attendant “social decay” (Ifesinachi,
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Politics of
combating
corruption
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Vol.23 No. 4, 2016
pp.725-747
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DOI 10.1108/JFC-04-2015-0024
2008, pp. 153-173) and deterioration in various sectors (Obadan and Edo, 2004, pp. 21-31,
Iyoha, 2004, pp. 35-41) of the national economy.
To mitigate corruption, various legal and institutional frameworks were established.
Most of those frameworks established to mitigate this monster from 1975-1999 were
ineffective against this ill (Smah, 2009, pp. 120-155). Each political regime came to power
promising to eliminate the practice and punish offenders, only to fall into the same
pattern (Almond et al., 2012, p. 671). As a result, it became unlikely that this culture will
be changed within the foreseeable future by the present available social apparatus of
law enforcement or by an ad hoc approach to the issue of corruption (Political Bureau,
1986, p. 216). The fundamental question then is why did the previous mechanism for
combating corruption fail? The answer can be found in the appendant lack of efcacy of
state institutions (Jega, 2007) induced by mismanagement, indiscipline and corruption
(Kukah, 2003, p. 71). One other reason for the defect is that the criminal/penal code had
become obsolete and, hence, failed to prescribe severe punishment that will deter
corruption. The third issue relates to the unstable organization structure associated with
ad hoc arrangement. While the fourth loophole has to do with the short life span of ad hoc
commission, which did not allow interested parties to follow up on corruption cases that
had not been conclusively and properly disposed-off. Sadly, too, most of the ad hoc
commission members treated some of the accused persons with bias or favouritism. The
rigid structuring and terms of reference of those ad hoc commissions only impeded them
to effectively respond to the demands of an ever-changing, complex, dynamic and latent
environmental force that allowed corruption to thrive in Nigeria.
These limitations informed the establishment of the Economic and Financial Crimes
Commission (EFCC) to combat the various forms of corruption in Nigeria. For the effort
of the EFCC to be result-oriented, there must be an enabling environment to complement
it, and the strategies adopted by the Commission for eradicating have to be
comprehensive and inclusive, integrated, transparent, non-partisan, evidence-based, in
alliance with civil society and in accordance with the rule of law (Shehu, 2006,
pp. 363-366). Despite this arrangement, the EFCC has been accused of the capricious use
and abuse of its powers to silence dissenting political voices and selectivity in
prosecuting corruption cases (Almond et al., 2012, p. 672). To Oyovbaire, (2008, p. 258),
the EFCC lent itself for use by OBJ in the pursuit of his third-term agenda against
perceived opponents and renitent state executives. According to Iyare (2008, p. 46), the
EFCC under Nuhu Ribadu became a Frankenstein monster of sorts by using the tactics
of intimidation, harassment, virtual infraction of democratic rights of the citizenry and
laying siege to courts in the attempt to carry out its work. While, Abba Gana, in the Daily
Trust, posits that, after a decade of the so-called war on corruption, the People’s
Democratic Party-led federal government has failed to walk through the corruption
morass.
Even now, it is averred that corruption is still the norm and its news is no longer
stunning (Ogundiya, 2012, p. 52). Given this backdrop, scholars like Olu-Adeyemi and
Obayumi (2010, p. 125) are of the view that the EFCC has not been effective at curbing
corruption. It is against the background of the presumed public outcry that this
assessment becomes relevant. As a result, this study raises the following question for
possible answers: Has EFCC been effective at combating corruption in Nigeria from
2003-2012? And if not, what are the factors that have undermined its effectiveness
during the study period? Following from the above question, the objective of this study
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