News, Politics

Saraki Blasts EFCC

President of the Senate, Bukola Saraki has blasted the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC) and the Independent Corrupt Practices and other related Offences Commission (ICPC).

“The anti-graft agencies were under pressure to show that they are working. The agencies to do more showmanship than actually prosecuting corruption cases. Talking about antidotes, I am convinced that we must return to that very basic medical axiom that prevention is better than cure. Perhaps, the reason our fight against corruption has met with rather limited success is that we appear to have favoured punishment over deterrent.”

“Most often, it is difficult to establish guilt beyond all reasonable doubts as required by our laws. It requires months, if not years, of painstaking investigations. It requires highly experienced and technically sound investigation and forensic officers. It requires anti-corruption agents and agencies that are truly independent and manifestly insulated from political interference and manipulation.”

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“We must admit that we are still far from meeting these standards. Most often, therefore, because our anti-corruption agencies are under pressure to justify their existence and show that they are working, they often tend to prefer the show over the substance. However, while the show might provide momentary excitement or even public applause, it does not substitute for painstaking investigation that can guarantee convictions.”

“Each time Nigerians talked about corruption, they focused almost exclusively on high-profile political corruption. While these tend to be of high impact and high drama, I suspect that they are not even as debilitating as what is often referred to as systemic corruption. The form of corruption by middle-level and junior-level government officials, who demanded gratification to do their ordinarily routine duties, was as grievous as the high-level corruption that readily comes to mind.”

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“Nigeria must review its approach in order to build systems that would make it a lot more difficult to carry out corrupt acts or to find a safe haven for corruption proceeds within our borders. Nigerians must continue to strengthen accountability, significantly limit discretion in public spending and promote greater openness.”

“It is my view that the key area of prevention, we must work on, is to make it difficult for stolen money to find a home. It must not be based on individuals but on institutions. Let us fight corruption with sincerity. If we fight corruption in a corrupt way, we will not make any headway.”

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 “We, in the National Assembly, last week, took the first major step in this direction towards greater openness. For the first time in our political history, the budget of the National Assembly changed from a one-line item to a 34-page document that shows details of how we plan to utilise the public funds that we appropriate to ourselves. This is a very significant step forward and we are very proud of it.”