Official frustration of anti-graft war

Being the excerpts of a keynote address delivered by Femi Falana SAN at the 18th Anti-Corruption Situation Room on Review of the Fight Against Corruption held by the Human Rights and Environmental Development Agenda (HEDA) at Abuja.

• . Section 15 (5) of the Constitution has imposed a duty on the State to “abolish corrupt practices and abuse of power”. The Federal Government has set up the CCB, EFCC and ICPC to fight corruption. Only the governments of Kano and Oyo states have established anti graft bodies to fight corruption.  Other state governments including those who are calling for restructuring should no longer allow the EFCC and ICPC to investigate and prosecute corruption cases.
• In order to strengthen the EFCC and ICPC to perform their duties without interference the national assembly should amend the relevant laws to grant them autonomy. The proposed amendment should ensure that the majority of the board members of the agencies are nominees of accredited representatives of credible civil society bodies.
• Section 85 (2) of the Constitution provides that “The public accounts of the Federation shall be audited and reported on to the Auditor-General who shall submit his reports to the National Assembly; and for that purpose, the Auditor-General or any person authorised by him in that behalf shall have access to all the books, records, returns and other documents relating to those accounts.” Each house of the National Assembly shall cause the reports to be considered by the Committee of the House of the National Assembly responsible for public accounts. Henceforth, the National Assembly should stop passing the budget of any department or agency of the government indicted by the Auditor-General until the money diverted is refunded.

Conclusion

Permit me to conclude this address by insisting that the fight against corruption cannot succeed without the involvement of the people who are the direct victims of the menace. Therefore, the labour movement and other progressive forces in the country should not hesitate to take advantage of the new official policy to mobilise the masses to demand accountability from all public officers. This should start with popular participation in the preparation and execution of annual budgets of all tiers of government. President Kagame has said that “we want to create wealth, not merely fighting corruption.” Let the Federal Government take up the challenge by creating wealth to fund the rights of the Nigerian people to education, health and other basic amenities.