As security agencies carefully study the verbal and facial expressions of the President and Commander-in-Chief, Bola Tinubu, munch like they did the acclaimed body language of former President Muhammadu Buhari when he took office in 2015, it seems the non-uniformed security agencies are already gearing up to rejig their strategies to conform with the President’s security template, part of which he had disseminated on two occasions.
Apart from including it in his 80-page campaign manifesto document, he recently disclosed part of it to security leaders in his first “eyeball-to-eyeball” meeting with them and also harped on it while declaring open the state-of-the-art technology installations in the Office of the National Security Adviser, where he reinterated why security agencies should collaborate in the overall interest of the country. Indeed, there is substance in inter-agencies collaboration. It unites and improves operational plans, including intelligence-sharing. It expunges the spirit of rivalry and improves excellence. So, the recent unnecessary stand-off or show of force exhibited by the Department of State Security (DSS) against the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC) was absolutely uncalled for. Thank goodness for the timely intervention of the President, who immediately directed the DSS to vacate the lkoyi, Lagos, disputed property, which originally and historically belonged to the Nigeria Police. It originally belonged to the police Special Branch, which metamorphosed into the Nigeria Security Organisation (NSO), but after the Maitatsine uproar, President Ibrahim Babangida officially reallocated the premises to the police and this was handed over to the EFCC, since the commission was seen as the baby of the police, with a police officer as its founding chairman.
The DSS-EFCC stand-off would have degenerated to a public show of shame. It’s on record that DSS loves to flex its muscles each time both agencies cross one another’s way. I recall the attempted arrest or was it abduction of the immediate past chairman of EFCC, Mr. Ibrahim Magu, on his way from the Force Headquarters, Abuja, to bring him before the Justice Ayo Salami panel for a presidential inquiry on alledged official misconduct in July 2020. Such unnecessary exhibition of animosity between sister agencies of the same government does not augur well for the image of the country.
Record shows that, in the number of arrests and prosecution of high-profile government officials that were investigated for corruption by the Efcc, they included a serving head of the civil service, Winifred Oyo-Ita, a serving Accountant-General of the Federation, Ahmed Idris, former chairman of the Pension Reform Task Team, Abdulrasheed Maina, former Service Chiefs, Air Chief Marshal Alex Badeh, Air Marshal Adesola Amosu, etc. Indeed, records show that the EFCC alone recorded over 6,000 convictions in the first seven years of the Buhari administration. In 2022, the last full year of the Buhari administration, EFCC recorded 3,785 convictions. These figures are unprecedented in the nation’s history.
Impressively, a new body is now well positioned to supervise and monitor the activities of Designated Non-financial Businesses and Professions (DNFBPs), which are vulnerable to money laundering activities. Let us not also forget that the reform of the anti-corruption framework had earlier in 2018 resulted in the establishment of the Nigerian Financial Intelligence Unit (NFIU) as an independent agency of government.
Even as security experts would score Buhari’s administration very low in the fight against terrorism, especially as it affects some states and lack of operational cohension among security agencies, nonetheless, the war against corruption was very definite and result-oriented.
It would be recalled that former President Buhari campaigned on the score that he was going to tackle the corruption menace and all through his eight years as President he never wavered. While he may not have completely eradicated the scourge, many would acknowledge the giant strides recorded in the fight against corruption under his watch. In the eight years of the Buhari administration, Nigeria witnessed conscious and deliberate efforts to tackle corruption, including the establishment of a Presidential Advisory Committee Against Corruption, the design and implementation of a National Anti-Corruption Strategy, and the strengthening of the anti-corruption agencies. The implementation of the National Anti-Corruption Strategy led to the introduction of programmes such as the whistleblower policy, the implementation of the Treasury Single Account and issuance of various executive orders meant to strengthen the anti-corruption framework of the administration. Apart from policy reforms, the administration also initiated legal reforms to strengthen the anti-money laundering framework of the country. Three key legislations, the Money Laundering (Prevention and Prohibition) Act, 2022, the Proceeds of Crime (Recovery and Management) Act, 2022, and the Terrorism (Prevention and Prohibition) Act, 2022, are exceptional statutes that have radically altered the template for fighting money laundering, illicit financial flows and terrorism financing in Nigeria. A key development arising from the new MLPA is the domiciliation of the Special Control Unit against Money Laundering, SCUML in the EFCC.
The agency also recorded humongous cash recoveries within the same period, while forfeited assets were offered for sale to the public in a public auction.
One feature that Tinubu must note is that 70 percent of what the Buhari administration achieved in the fight against corruption can be attributed to one agency, the EFCC. The Abdulrasheed Bawa-led EFCC has quietly and progressively maintained a very impressive leadership that has roundly touched every aspect of the fight against corruption and economic crimes.
Even more crucial to the sustenance of the fight against corruption is the need to ensure the stability of the EFCC as an institution by upholding the aggressive reforms of the anti-graft agency. EFCC is so important to the fight against corruption in Nigeria that any decision motivated by political expediency could send the wrong signals to the international community about the new administration’s commitment to fighting corruption. The President must be mindful of the gambits by close allies with pending corruption cases who might want to exploit their access to him to instigate crisis in the EFCC and other agencies. I believe the President is discerning enough to see through schemes and advice that are self-serving. Fundamentally, he must be conscious of the need to assure sceptics that he is not coming to undo the progress of the past eight years, but to strengthen the EFCC and other anti-corruption agencies through adequate funding and robust policy initiatives that will further empower them to discharge their mandates to the Nigerian people. Furthermore, to guarantee the independence of the anti-corruption agencies, the Tinubu, in his choice of Attorney-General and Minister of Justice, must settle for an appointee with unblemished anti-corruption pedigree. The fight against corruption in Nigeria, under successive administrations, havs been marred by turf wars between heads of anti-corruption agencies and the AGF. While one is not averse to anti-graft agencies being supervised, they must not be left to the whims of an appointee of government. Also, operatives involved in the fight against corruption must themselves be insulated against corruption through robust welfare packages, including exposure to cutting-edge training opportunities and modern investigation tools and facilities.