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From Sola Ojo, Abuja
The Nigeria Labour Congress (NLC), has pledged its support for the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC) in the fight against corruption and illicit financial flows in Nigeria.
The NLC General Secretary and General Secretary of the International Trade Union Confederation-Africa (ITUC-Africa), Akhator Joel Odigie, made the pledge when he led a delegation of the union on a courtesy visit to the EFCC in Abuja.
Odigie said the visit was part of a wider continental campaign by ITUC-Africa against illicit financial flows, which he said was already on-going in Zambia and Kenya and would extend to Uganda, Ghana and Senegal.
He said the campaign was rooted in the African Union-commissioned Mbeki Panel report, which found that about $60 billion left Africa annually as of 2005 through tax avoidance, tax evasion and other illicit financial practices by large businesses and wealthy individuals.
“Our coming today, first, is a way of solidarity. To say we are with you in this fight. Let us fight together.
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“That more than ever before, the fight you are undertaking is on behalf of the Nigerian people, on behalf of the workers,” Odigie said.
He argued that Africa was not a net debtor but a net creditor continent because of the resources being taken out of the continent through illicit financial flows.
Odigie called for stronger and safer whistleblowing mechanisms to enable workers who witness corruption to report such cases without fear of victimisation.
He said the NLC had been considering ways to ensure that workers who expose corrupt practices could report them safely and receive adequate protection from relevant institutions.
Responding, the EFCC Director of Public Affairs, Wilson Uwujaren, who represented the Executive Chairman, Ola Olukoyede, said the commission had moved beyond merely lamenting illicit financial flows to active enforcement through investigations, arrests and recoveries.
Uwujaren, however, acknowledged that the EFCC could not win the anti-corruption war alone and welcomed stronger collaboration with labour and other civil society organisations.
