Oshiomhole: Nigeria Needs WMD to Wipe out Corruption
Magu bemoans multi-agency rivalry Ex-gov, Ozekhome clash over media trial of suspects
Paul Obi
Former Governor of Edo State, Adams Oshiomhole, yesterday said Nigeria’s fight against corruption would remain a complete lip service until the government deploy sophisticated mechanism to tame the monster, stating that the country needs Weapons of Mass Destruction (WMB) to wipe out corruption and persons associated with graft out of the country.
Oshiomhole spoke as the guest speaker at the first National AntiCorruption Stakeholders’ Summit organised by the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC) in Karu, Abuja, with the theme: ‘Building National Anti-Corruption Consensus in a Multi-Agency Environment.’
This came as the EFCC acting Chairman, Ibrahim Magu, decried the rivalry among anti-graft agencies, stating: “We are all witnesses to the fact that individualistic approach has not taken us anywhere.
“Rather than tame corruption, the monster has become daring while those who should tame it are sometimes busy engaging in turf war. We cannot continue to allow our corporate and individual interests to pull us in different directions, while the wellbeing of our fellow citizens takes the back seat.”
But according to Oshiomhole, there was no way any serious nation can fight corruption without casualties, arguing that the Nigerian society now operates with obvious disdain for merit, thereby entrenching the act of corruption in nearly all strata of the society.
Oshiomhole said: “How can we win the fight against corruption without casualties? There has to be collaboration among anti-corruption agencies, all the agencies involved in the fight against corruption must have to share intelligence.”
The former governor explained that it would be difficult to rid the nation of corruption given that it now has a “generation that has never earned anything based on merit; never known merit in their lives and have always been assisted by an uncle or aunty.
He also decried the level of corruption perpetuated in the telecommunications and electricity sectors while regulatory agencies like the Nigerian Communications Commission (NCC) and the National Electricity Regulatory Commission (NERC) look the other way.
Conversely, a human rights lawyer, Chief Mike Ozokhome (SAN), differed with Oshiomhole, warning that media trial has the potential of derailing the nation’s fight against corruption.
Ozokhome argued that “on media trail, I am a lawyer and human rights activist; I take very seriously issues of rule of law. I do not believe in media trial. For example, a suspect is being investigated by the EFCC, tomorrow, it is in the pages of a particular newspaper and to the statement made by that suspect.
“But that suspect may never be tried, even if he is arraigned and tried, he may never be found guilty, but you have destroyed his image; his reputation beforehand.
So we should run away from that, it is not good. The other thing is: respect court orders. If you do not respect court orders, the international community will never respect us.”
He further charged the EFCC to desist from the lopsided prosecution of only selected persons, while ignoring persons within the present government.
On multi-agencies’ rivalry, Ozokhome called for collaboration, stating that the complexities associated with anti-graft agencies in the war against corruption remains a great obstacle in ridding Nigeria of corruption.
Also, Chairman, Senate Committee on Anti-Corruption and Financial Crimes, Senator Chukwuka Utazi, warned the EFCC to expedite action in rendering account of all the recovered funds in its custody.
Utazi said: “For instance, the records of seized assets, moveable and immoveable ought to be made available. Records of status of cases being handled by the commission, recovered moneys, forfeiture orders obtained, all are pending.
“All these ought to be made available by the EFCC headquarters to the legislature. It is very important that while we are doing our job, especially an important agency like this, we must ensure that people have to continued trust and believe, and when someone say, let me look at your records, there would not be issues,” the Senator added.
Chairman, House of Representatives Committee on Narcotics, Financial Crimes and Anti-Corruption, Hon. Kayode Oladele, also cautioned the EFCC to refrain from over reliance on the police force in carrying out its duty while leaving its main staff redundant.
Oladele said: “We are talking about inter-agency; we are not talking about bringing one agency to dominate the other agency. The reason why we have established EFCC is to ensure that the bureaucracy of the police is taken away, we can no longer the police again. We have to speak truth to ourselves. People that are working here must have career progression.”