Executive intervention in EFCC threatening fight against corruption – HRW
By Abdulwahab Abdulah & Kehinde Olasanmi
LAGOS — A United States-based human rights organisation, Human Rights Watch, HRW, said, yesterday, that every effort to curb corruption by the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission, EFCC, in Nigeria might not yield the desired result if the executive arm of government and the political establishments continue to interfere in activities of the commission.
In a 64-page report, entitled, “Corruption on Trial? The Record of Nigeria’s Economic and Financial Crimes Commission,” by Eric Guttschuss, a researcher with the organisation, the organisation urged President Goodluck Jonathan to avoid the bad practices of past administrations by publicly declaring that he would not tolerate interference in corruption cases, and granting the chairperson security of tenure by amending the legislation that created the commission.
On the judiciary, the group said: “Nigeria’s weak and overburdened judiciary has also been an obstacle to effective prosecutions. Most of the corruption cases against high-level political figures have been stalled in the courts for years, with their trials not even begun.
The new administration should initiate the long-term process of repairing the battered federal court system, reforming federal criminal procedure and evidence rules, and examining ways to establish special courts or designating specific judges to hear only corruption cases.”
It said since the commission was established in December 2002, it had publicly challenged the longtime ironclad impunity of Nigeria’s political elite – an accomplishment without precedent in Nigeria.
The agency has arraigned 30 nationally prominent political figures on corruption charges, including 15 former state governors.
It however said many of those cases have made little progress in the courts and that not a single politician is serving prison time for any of these alleged crimes. It noted that “The commission has secured four convictions of senior political figures, but they have faced relatively little or no prison time. Other politicians widely implicated in corruption have not been indicted.
“There were high hopes for the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission as Nigeria’s most promising effort to tackle corruption since the end of military rule, but its efforts have fallen short because of political interference, institutional weakness, and inefficiency in the judiciary that cannot be ignored.” HRW added.
It also said the country’s governing elite continues to squander and siphon off the nation’s tremendous oil wealth, neglecting basic health and education services for the masses to bear, saying, “vast majority of ordinary citizens are suffering due to corruption and widespread graft, which it said has fueled political violence, police abuses, and other human rights violations.
