In 2007, “unnamed officials” of the commission declared that the agency would shift focus to “asset recovery,” not prosecution. Translation: deals, not justice.
By SONALA OLUMHENSE
In October 2023, a remarkable event occurred in the Nigerian National Assembly. It was a citizen presenting the most eloquent testimony against corruption to the Senate.
“Let the fight against corruption begin from this hallowed chamber,” he advocated.
His identity: Ola Olukoyede. He got his confirmation, detonating a live political landmine as he unwittingly used the EFCC’s investigation of Senate President Godswill Akpabio as an example.
Akpabio laughed. “Mr nominee, leave the Senate President for now,” he chuckled.
But EFCC was prosecuting Akpabio. Yes, the very man I had cited as an example of Nigeria “scrubbing out character,” whose years-long demonstration of ethical emptiness and attempts to evade prosecution (EFCC first arrested him in 2015), had become the Senate President.
Come with me, then, to the website of the EFCC. Try searching for “Patience Jonathan.”
James Ibori? Sambo Dasuki? Godswill Akpabio? “No results found,” right?
I use these four examples because I can think of no other Nigerians who have been paired more frequently or intensively with the EFCC in news reports in the last 20 years.
But it has been 18 years since I wrote “Patience Jonathan, Nigeria’s most powerful woman,” following the EFCC’s seizure of $13.5 million from her in September 2006.
Parallel narratives exist for the other three searches you have just conducted. And yet, the mighty commission doing the seizing and arresting and charging has no records? “No results found”?
One month ago, EFCC approached various media houses with an article about me, aiming to abort my annual reminder of its reporting obligation.
Now, many Nigerian institutions far less pivotal than the EFCC are glad to report: A sample: The Financial Reporting Council; Auditor-General of the Federation; NIMASA; Bureau of Public Procurement; Fiscal Responsibility Commission; and the National Pension Commission.
Welcoming the first EFCC report in September 2006, Senate President Ken Nnamani stressed the reporting date, asking: “If the report of the Number Two citizen in our country is a public document, why should the report concerning state governors, councillors not be available?”
At that event, Mr Nuhu Ribadu, the pioneer EFCC chairman, unveiled “corruption in high places,” listing by name several governors.
That first report, sadly, is the last time any EFCC leader has officially filed the comprehensive, professional and audited report demanded by law.
I have personally searched. I have invited entire news organisations to do so. How can two decades’ worth of reporting elude the mass media of Nigeria unless someone is trying to call them lazy or stupid?
In 2007, “unnamed officials” of the commission declared that the agency would shift focus to “asset recovery,” not prosecution. Translation: deals, not justice.
In October 2012, I described that tragedy as the EFCC moving Nigeria backwards.