It is very brazen political lying to equate the refund of stolen funds to the state with political success or successful anti-corruption. Effective correction, detection and prevention are the all-round benchmarks of successful anti-corruption for any given democracy. Only proper correction can make precise detection worthwhile, which in turn makes adequate prevention robust. The recovery…
Who Will the EFCC Cadet Graduates Serve? People when no dey happy, people when know dey look – Fela Kuti, Overtake don Overtake Last week Ibrahim Malu, the acting chairperson of the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC) was delighted to announce that its training college had graduated 183 cadet officers with 331 more to…
Anti-corruption is not a simple task to handle and it is not always straightforward. There are practical exhaustive steps to fighting corruption if properly executed (even with mistakes) that could certainly lead to massive reductions in the incidence and scale of the phenomenon. Currently, there is nothing of substance either straightforward, indirect or practical about…
“There is no good name for a terrible disease” – Urhobo proverb. “The solution to Africa’s problems lie solely in Africa” – George Ayittey. Coconut Head Corruption (CHC) is a term derived from the vocabulary of George Ayittey. He is a distinguished U.S. based Ghanaian economist and is used to describe the observed hollow-headedness and thoughtlessness…
When the suspensions of the Secretary to the Federal Government, Babachir David Lawal, and the Director-General of the Nigerian Intelligence Agency, Ayodele Oke, by the Presidency were announced yesterday, many enthusiastically hoped it was the beginning of the serious disciplinary approach to dealing with malfeasance and nonfeasance in the Nigerian government. Others may say, too…
Where is the Government of Nigeria (GON) or the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC) winning their war against corruption? Nowhere. No vigorous prosecutions, no convictions, no legislative reforms, no judicial reforms, no constitutional reforms, nothing. All the citizens of Nigeria see are publicity stunts and government-engineered scandals. Is there anything else substantial to show…
The current sensation in Nigeria is the mysterious discoveries and seizures of large sums of money (mostly foreign currency) found at lying fallow at premium addresses. The cash discoveries are claimed to be the work of selfless “whistleblowers” at the encouragement of the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC). And it is expected to show…
James Ibori is both Nigeria and a Nigerian in the most representative of terms. The Ibori Corruption Saga has much less implication for the ex-governor of Delta State himself; it is a signature of Nigeria as it, its forgettable past and possibly its uncertain future. Ibori’s triumphant entry into Nigeria is seriously superficial, his real welcome was…
Many Nigerians hopefully think that one day, the nation will attract enough foreign direct investment (FDI) to enable the develop development of electricity in the country. The hope is FDI will thoroughly refurbish, upgrade or expand the generation, transmission and distribution capacities of the [now] privatised Nigerian Electric Power Sector (NEPS) to provide customers with…
