Alternate Chairman, Anti-corruption Commission of the Nigerian Bar Association (NBA), John Baiyesea, (SAN), has recommended the merger of the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC) and Independent Corrupt Practices and Other Related Offences Commission (ICPC) for effective prosecution of persons standing trial for corrupt offences.
The Ilorin-based legal practitioner also suggested time a time limit for the prosecution of cases, adding that prolonged prosecution of corrupt cases creates room for people to escape justice.
Mr. Baiyesea spoke this in Ilorin, the Kwara state capital at a public lecture organized by the Anti-Corruption and Transparency Monitoring Unit (ACTU) of the University of Ilorin.
He urged Nigerians to stop idolising corrupt people, saying “Nigerians should rather treat such people with contempt and stop hailing them.”
Said he: “Indicted persons for corruption should never be allowed to aspire again to public offices; the present constitutional provisions which prohibit only persons convicted and not persons indicted should be amended to the effect that if you are indicted, you must not be allowed to contest any public office or be appointed into public office until you clear that indictment.
“Then again, there should be constitutional provision(s) to the effect that if you are convicted for any crime, particularly economic crime, you will be banned for life from contesting public office or being appointed to hold public office. By this practice Nigeria has been reduced to a laughing stock in the comity of civilised nations.
“Looted funds when recovered should henceforth be used deliberately to fund some fundamental projects or infrastructure. I am making this suggestion because looted funds recovered from previous looters of our treasury cannot be traced to any meaningful project.
“Our legal system and or laws should also henceforth make provisions to hold public officials and persons in both public and private who live above their means to be accountable for such excesses. In other words, anyone who lives above his means should be made to explain because that could be a prima facie fact of corruption.
“There should be an effective and efficient monitoring and scrutiny of bank transactions of such people. That is the practice in South Korea, China, Hong Kong and even western countries generally. No serious society wishing to fight corruption can allow it citizens to live extraordinarily above his legitimate means of earning without explanation.”
He added that “overwhelming Nigerians are conspirators with the looters of the country’s economy. It appears therefore that the problem will not go away very soon unless there is an attitudinal change.”