The Quest for Accountability is no Passing Phase

Sunday with Dr. Doyin Abiola, The Sunday Punch September 24, 2006

Once it could be dismissed as one of those administrative instruments that are more of a toothless bull dog to scare rather than to bite but now it is shaping up as a worthy legacy of the present administration. The Economic and Financial Crimes Commission, EFCC, is empowered by the Establishment Act of 2004” to prevent, investigate, prosecute and penalize economic and financial crimes and is charged with the responsibility of enforcing the provisions of other laws and regulations relating to economic and financial crimes, including:

·         The Money Laundering Act 1995

·         The Money Laundering (Prohibition) act 2004

·         The Advance Fee Fraud and Other Fraud Related Offences Act 1995

·         The Failed Banks (Recovery of Debts) and Financial Malpractices in Banks Act 1994

·         The Banks and other Financial Institutions Act 1991; and

·         Miscellaneous Offences Act.”

With the abuse of office indictment against the Vice President, Alhaji Abubakar Atiku through the office by the EFCC and counter accusation by him against the President, Chief Olusegun Obasanjo, the whole scenario has recorded a precedent, one that may come to be seen as a turning point in the Nigerian experience; enforcing accountability in the executive arm of government.  Hitherto, the executive is perceived as endowed with absolute power to govern absolutely without accountability.  But the current face off in the Presidency being refereed by the enforcer, EFCC, has changed that irrevocably.  The pervasive thesis, fuelled by the disclosures of the warring parties thus far, is that even the executive could be liable and should be held accountable.

The festering crisis within the executive arm of government has done more than provide a rack of scandals.  It has shown the under belly of maladministration at the highest level of governance which should provide better understanding of our pervasive poverty regardless of oil revenues.  Hitherto all transactions are clothed in secrecy, thanks to the classification of vital information in the absence of the enactment of the Bill on Freedom of Information.  The turn of events should spur the passing of the Bill to give a legitimate administrative framework to the process of accountability in our country “of anything goes” as aptly described by President Obasanjo.  But there is more.

A subplot to the cleansing of corruption in the public stable has been playing out at the private sector too, where sources of wealth are being probed.  Few now doubt that the searching will extend to the corporate world where crimes have been a hush, hush affair. That too could change. Those within and outside Nigeria benefiting from our corrupt ways and hoping that the anticorruption crusade would be a passing phase, will instead have to adjust to a different reality.  Foreign crooks that come in droves to transact their kind of business would have to take their businesses elsewhere.  Their belief that a new administration in 2007 will ditch the EFCC for the continuation of business as usual is illogical.  Why should it?  What would be the rationale for the few to live on ill-gotten wealth and obscene opulence at the expense of the millions living in poverty?  The possibility of any administration doing away with the anticorruption crusade, and getting away with it, is remote for it will be resisted by the people who are bearing the brunt of it all.  Despite the accusation of selective hounding of the corrupt culprits against the EFCC, the criticism is more for equity in justice than allowing the guilty to go scot-free.

And those hoping that the anticorruption posture, EFCC et al were a bad dream, which would end with President Obasanjo’s tenure, has another think coming.  The corruption genie is out of the bottle and cannot be pushed back in; and with so many kings now dancing naked in the market place, aspirants to high offices will be foolhardy not to accept that nemesis will, sooner than later, catch up with the guilty, no matter the machinations employed by them.  Put plainly, Nigeria is moving slowly but steadily to the Right, all courtesy of the President, his Enforcer, the EFCC, and his crusading team against all shades of corrupt practices at the ports, in learning institutions, health and banking services, et cetera.  Nigeria is winning and that will translate to mean the welfare of Nigerian populace, the essence of good governance under a democracy.