EFCC’s singsong impresses no one

He said that operatives of the EFCC and those of the UK Metropolitan Police were investigating some public officers, including incumbent state governors, on offences relating to money laundering and stealing public funds. Lamorde reiterated the Commission’s commitment to fight corruption. According to him, the ECFF would not spare any public office holder who stole […]

He said that operatives of the EFCC and those of the UK Metropolitan Police were investigating some public officers, including incumbent state governors, on offences relating to money laundering and stealing public funds. Lamorde reiterated the Commission’s commitment to fight corruption. According to him, the ECFF would not spare any public office holder who stole from government coffers and that there were machineries in place to trace such money and also bring the individuals involved to justice.
Lamorde also disclosed that the investigations on other former public officers were ongoing by the EFCC and the UK police, and that they would be arrested. Pleading for the patience of the public because proper investigations take time, he noted that perpetrators had changed their methods thus making the task of tracking them harder.
Mr Lamorde appears to have cultivated the habit of making declarations of the EFCC’s goals, but there’s little record of these being achieved. Short of portraying his words as pandering to the public, especially at this period of intense political campaigns, Mr Lamorde has actually not said anything new.  Few Nigerians believe that the EFCC is serving the purpose for which it was established. The Commission’s failure to secure the conviction of some high-profile cases in the public and financial sectors, especially those involved in the controversial fuel subsidy scam, has cost it much of the confidence and trust it seeks.
A former EFCC head, Malam Nuhu Ribadu, said in 2007 that the Commission had incriminating documents that were grave enough to convict 14 serving governors. Several years after Ribadu left office, and the governors too have served out their tenures and lost their immunity, not one of them has been convicted in court. In fact, some of them, having been cleared by political authorities, have stood for and won elective positions; some have been given key public service appointments. This is why even the UK metropolitan Police may well take EFCC’s acclaimed resolve to fight against corruption with more than a pinch of salt.
The large-scale corruption that has characterised government business and, to an extent the private sector, in recent years is indication that the EFCC has lost steam, and is not working as it should. This is why it should be not be surprising if members of the public consider Lamorde’s declaration as the barking of a toothless bulldog.
But the blame does not just lie with the EFCC alone; the government that should it give guidance and provide it with the financial wherewithal to carry out its activities is not sending the right message to convince even its employees that corruption is indeed a serious problem.
Last year, President Goodluck Jonathan was seen on public television declaring that people should not conflate ‘ordinary stealing’ of public money with corruption. In statements on the campaign trail recently, he said his idea of fighting corruption did not involve ‘throwing people into jail’.  This attitude of permissiveness allows graft to thrive. It began early, when the president, against all legal principles, pardoned a former state governor who was convicted in court for embezzlement of public funds.
Government functionaries that the National Assembly determined had compromised their status and indicted have only eased out of public, with generous ‘soft landing’ provisions, when they should be in jail.
There is no doubt therefore that EFCC needs to wean itself from the compromising embrace of politicians. Even with its current status, it has all the powers it needs to operate independently and not be beholden to any politician, not even the president. If Lamorde cannot exercise the powers of the Commission to bring corrupt public officers to justice, empty boasts of future action carry no weight.