BY UGOCHUKWU ALARIBE

ABA- Chairman of the Association of South East Town Unions, ASETU, Chief Emeka Diwe, has said the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission, EFCC, and the Independent Corrupt practices and Other Related Offences Commission, ICPC, are fighting corruption with measures which encourages than eradicate the menace.

Diwe who stated this in an interview with Vanguard in Aba, insisted that the two agencies should show more seriousness in fighting corruption and desist from media trial of suspects, and warned that the country needs to devise what he described as a Nigerian system of fighting corruption.

According to him,” Our ant graft agencies are not fighting corruption the way it ought to be fought. Corruption is not something you fight with kid gloves. Corruption is not something you fight and remember that Mr. A is my brother; he is in my political party or from my ethnic group. It is when you carry the fight against corruption to your friend, brother and the friends that people would begin to appreciate it, not these half hearted measures.

Chief Emeka Diwe

“We really have to devise a Nigerian system of fighting corruption, we must employ drastic measures. Our democracy does not have to be a replica of America or Britain. We must make anti graft laws according to our peculiarities. We have our culture and it must be built into the fight against corruption. This is where I praise the Buhari/ Idiagbon regime; they are the only administration in Nigeria to have made a positive attempt to fight corruption without looking at faces and political considerations.

Anybody who had questions to answer was made to face the music rather than this cronyism we are witnessing. Through their War Against Indiscipline, WAI, they brought real discipline to the system and everybody fell in line. If the programme was sustained by succeeding administrations, things would have been better.”

He accused the anti corruption agencies of incompetence in the manner they prosecute cases, stressing that some had lasted as long as eight years without conclusion.

“Our anti corruption agencies have been playing to the gallery. Petitions are not properly investigated; this is why some corruption cases have lasted more than 8 years. Some cases collapse in court because of lack of thorough investigation and credible evidence. Remember what happened in Ghana when Jerry Rawlings woke up to fight corruption.

People who fight the type of corruption we have in Nigeria must be skilled and fearless; not this prevailing practice of saying one thing and doing another. Corruption is a macro monster, the biggest devil in Nigeria. It is not what you employ half hearted measures to fight. Nigeria has continued to institutionalize elements of corruption and yet claims to be fighting corruption.

“The attitude to fight corruption ought to have been embedded in the system. To fight corruption in Nigeria or anywhere the anti corruption agencies must be independent and free from external control. We must also strengthen our judicial system where some cases of corruption have been held up for up to eight years. All these institutions that have to do with the fight against corruption must be strengthened if we must make headway.”