The Executive Chairman of the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission, EFCC has stated that Nigeria’s under-development would be a thing of the past if everyone begins to see corruption as a common enemy and tackle it.
He stated this on Friday, January 31, 2025 when officials of the Centre for Crisis Communication, CCC, led by the Director of its Board of Trustees, BoT, Major General Chris Olukolade (retd) paid him a courtesy visit at the EFCC corporate headquarters, Abuja.
According to Olukoyode, “One of the major problems in Nigeria which when tackled, will make under-development a thing of the past, is corruption and financial crimes. A society that is ready to move forward is a responsibility not only of the government, but of the citizens. This is what has actually led some of us to be very committed to this cause. We are ready to go the whole hog to do what we need to do within the confines and provisions of the law and the power that the Constitution has conferred on us. If everybody makes up his or her mind to do the right thing, we’ll move forward in this country.”
Olukoyede who expressed delight at the proposal of the CCC delegation for collaboration and synergy in the areas of strategic communication and public engagement, re-emphasized that the work and successes of the EFCC run on the wheels of public engagement and advocacy.
“We thank you for proposing a synergy and collaboration with us to support the work we do. One of the strong pillars of our mandate is the issue of public engagement and public advocacy. We will partner with you in that respect. We have so many projects and programmes with respect to letting the public know what we’re doing and we are doing everything possible to ensure that we create awareness on the part of Nigerians with respect to the need for us to be careful and play by the rules. However, it is so unfortunate that the same people who approbate also reprobate at the same time. Everybody is crying that Nigerians are corrupt, that the system is corrupt; that corruption is killing us and destroying our system, but when we investigate high profile cases and arraign people in court, the same people will carry placards and be supporting corrupt leaders. It doesn’t show that we are serious about this fight. The fight is supposed to be a collaborative effort. No single agency can do it alone. It is practically impossible for us as EFCC to fight all the battles. The society has a role to play; policy has a role to play and the issue of welfare of the citizens has a role to play,” he said.
Speaking on the trajectory of his leadership, he disclosed that he has prioritized prevention over enforcement since coming on board.
“Now we are laying more emphasis on prevention which is a critical aspect of our mandate. We don’t have to always be waiting for money to be stolen before we start working in EFCC. To drive prevention, I established a new directorate called Fraud Risk Assessment and Control ,FRAC and now we are doing more of blocking of the leakages. We have access to GIFMIS (government payment platform). We want to track and see where every money, released is going. We want to ensure that every capital project is executed. With prevention, we discovered that there will be less to enforce. We are not dropping our mandate on enforcement. As a matter of fact, we are scaling it up. But we believe that it is important for us to prevent because it costs less to prevent than to react when the deed must have been done. So that is one of our areas of focus as of now.”
Besides prevention, the EFCC boss identified the leveraging of intelligence gathering in the work of the Commission as being instrumental to some of the recent mind-blowing successes of the Commission.
“Some
of
the
modest
achievements
we
have
recorded,
particularly
towards
the
last
quarter
of
last
year,
have
never
been
done
anywhere
in
the
world. Nowhere
in
the
world, and
no
agency has
anywhere
made the recovery of one
single
real
estate
as
large
as
what
we
did. It
may
not
necessarily
prove
that
corruption
is
increasing
in
Nigeria, but
rather shows
the
proficiency
of
our
system as
an
agency to
track,
trace
and
recover
because
that
property
has
always
been
there. It
shows
our
proficiency. Most
of
the
work
we
do
now is intelligence-driven. Pa
Earlier
in
his
remarks,
Major
General
Olukolade
disclosed
the
desire
of
the
CCC
to
work
in
partnership
and
collaboration
with
the
EFCC
in
the
areas
of
public
advocacy
and
strategic
communication,
stating
that
the
Centre
was
a
body
that
works in
close
collaboration
with
the
security
architecture
of
the
country and supporting
While lauding the EFCC for its giant strides in the anti-corruption fight, he stated that. “We want as a body to acknowledge the fact that the EFCC has continued to prove the relevance of his work to the Nigerian public. And we want to particularly acknowledge the fact that the renewed commitment of this organization to tackling economic and financial crimes, including the crackdown recently on high profile corruption practices, have been of great attention to us and we want to commend the agency for this renewed effort. We also particularly want to applaud the Commission’s proactive steps in investigating fraudulent activities, asset recovery and promoting the essence of transparency in governance through its anti graft operations.”
Touching on the dangers of the anti-corruption war, Olukolade said, “We know that all of this commitment should be drawing a lot of hot air and opposition from people with diverse interests. Our position for instance, as a body is that there’s no reason why anybody should be opposed to the logical efforts of EFCC if he is not guilty or sympathetic to the guilty. We want to urge the EFCC not to be deterred. You have supporters out there and we are at your disposal to support and promote the patriotic zeal that has been demonstrated here. You should not be discouraged, particularly with the renewed propaganda to discredit you or call some negative attention to this body.
“We are aware and commend your resilience that in spite of that you are still pushing on. We will urge you not to relent or be discouraged. Part of our own undertaking is in terms of advocacy, public advocacy. We will deploy that in support of this organization,” he said
He admonished the EFCC to be conscious of the antics of mischief makers and reassured the Commission of CCC’s absolute support. “The EFCC should be conscious of the fact that there are people willing to generate crises around its activities just for the fun of it. As stakeholders we are willing to work with you and we assure you that you can count on this Center as a source of support. Your campaign is laudable. It is patriotic and we are in support of you,” he said.
Dele Oyewale
Head, Media & Publicity
January 31, 2025
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