Civil Society Organisations have frowned at what they described as malfunctioning anti-corruption agencies in Nigeria saying their failure would hinder the fight against corruption.
According
to them, the absence of substantial chairmen for the agencies is
limiting their capacity to perform.Specifically, the Executive Director,
Africa Network for Environment and Economic Justice (ANEEJ), David
Ugolor said the offices of the Independent Corrupt Practices and other
related offences Commission (ICPC) and Economic and Financial Crimes
Commission (EFCC) are under acting chairmen, adding, “this ought not to
be.”
Speaking
at a forum on ‘Trending Corruption Issues in Nigeria’ organised by
ActionAid, Ugolor expressed dismay that the development would not allow
the ‘acting chairmen’ to perform their duties as expected.
He
said, “The current absence of substantive chairmen in the
anti-corruption agencies is not helping matters. In the EFCC for
instance, Ibrahim Magu has been the acting chairman for a long time,
this is not good, and you don’t expect him to do more than he is doing
because of this position, he is only trying.
“This
is what I zero down to the issue of political will; President Buhari
will be judged at the end par what he is able to do to strengthen these
institutions. So how do you say a president have a political will if the
anti-corruption agencies in which he will tackle corruption are not
with substantive leaderships.
“There
is no way that can work. Buhari himself cannot fight corruption; it is
the anti-corruption agencies that are saddled with these
responsibilities. If there are no substantive chairmen how do you fight
corruption? What signal are you sending to the world? We need to reform
the judicial system. You saw what has happened to the judicial system in
the last few months that is not good for the country in tackling
corruption.
“If
you look at the demography of Nigeria today, the youths constitute more
than 50 percent of the population and they are victim of these
corruption practices and so we need to galvanise. That is why those of
us working on this project see this as an opportunity to strengthen the
corruption work in Nigeria and build an alliance because we need
collective action.
Also,
the CSOs also commended the federal government for including citizens
to participate in monitoring recovered asset which they said isn the
first time in the country’s history.”
The
CSOs however said there was the need to scrutinise government spending
to ensure transparency and accountability.They also urged the National
Assembly to urgently pass proceed of crime bill into law.
The
CSOs which participated in the dialogue included Action Aid Nigeria,
Socio-Economic Rights and Accountability Project (SERAP) and Centre for
Communication and Social Impact, Women Advocate Research and
Documentation Centre (WARDC) and Media Rights Agenda (MRA).
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Politics