Corruption: 26 ex-govs under investigation-EFCC

Posted by admin EFCC Politics, General Politics, Governors, Latest Politics Friday, August 12th, 2011

THE chairman of the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC), Mrs Farida Waziri, has disclosed that 72 per cent (about 26) of former governors in Nigeria

are being investigated by the commission.

The commission has also recorded over 600 convictions and recovered almost 12 billion dollars in the last eight years.

Mrs Waziri made the disclosure on Wednesday night in Lagos at a business lecture to mark the 62nd anniversary of Lagos Country Club.

The EFCC chairman, while delivering a lecture entitled, “Good Governance: Leadership and Accountability as Imperatives,” decried the “undesirable listing of Nigeria“ among the poorest nations, despite the human and material resources available.

Mrs Waziri noted that, “Nigeria presents a peculiar case of deep-rooted culture of impunity, characterised by widespread corruption“ and enjoined Nigerians to confront corruption in their daily activities.

The anti-corruption agency boss revealed that it “is palpable and an incontrovertible fact that 72 per cent of former governors from 1999 to date are currently being investigated for different offences bordering on corruption, money laundering and other economic crimes.”

She also bemoaned the incapability of the anti-graft agency to diligently prosecute these corrupt governors, when she declared that, “yet some of them continue to contest and win elections into some other public offices.”

The EFCC boss blamed corruption in Nigeria on the failure of government at all levels to provide enough welfare institutions and services, forcing the electorate to often look up to their elected representatives to cater for their needs.

Mrs Waziri also blamed the lack of 100 per cent success in the prosecution of most of the agency‘s cases on the judicial system in the country, which according to her, gives succour to corrupt Nigerians.

She described corruption as a complex social, political and economic phenomenon that affects all countries and which undermines democratic institutions and slows economic development.

Mrs Waziri said that corruption corrodes foundation of democratic institutions by distorting electoral processes, perverting the rule of law and creating bureaucratic quagmire.

The EFCC boss suggested that, “in order to understand the tragedy of development and the challenges of democracy in Nigeria, one must come to terms with the problem of corruption and breathtaking wastage of resources.“

She also said the agency took the decision of plea bargaining to prevent corrupt Nigerians from enjoying their ill-gotten wealth, after they might have been convicted by a law court.

The EFCC boss said Nigeria could only overcome the problem of corruption if there was a collective action against it, adding that the need to fight graft through collective efforts was borne out of the fact that “you cannot clap with one hand.”

She added that “as a result of the commission’s efforts, the impunity that characterised the days of yore has significantly declined. Those who only recently could not be touched or questioned are today being made to answer questions on accountability and transparency. Some of those who, before now, saw prisons as reserved for low-level publics are today sharing facilities with inmates in those same prisons. That is how it should be and that is the whole essence of the rule of law.”

Waziri finally charged members of the elite club to start working towards changing the notion that the “national cake” was meant to be shared.

-Tribunewp_posts