The EFCC is living in bondage, By Ugoji Egbujo

A NADECO activist comes to power, picks up the head of the anti-corruption police, and flings him into a dungeon. Then everywhere he goes, he talks about the restoration of hope. Defanged and disoriented, the EFCC fidgets and wanders about like a vagrant dog, mocked by gluttonous politicians. NADECO people espoused justice and probity, so a corrupt public officer might suffer in their hands.

But two months after this arrest and incarceration, the president hasn’t bothered to tell the public what the detained EFCC chairman did let alone charge him in court. Military juntas didn’t dump people into dungeons without fabricating an excuse. Abacha, the tyrant, must be sniggering. His victims have learnt his art. Abiola, reclining on a sofa in his own district in the great beyond, must be shaking his head. Many governors whose conspicuous corruption the EFCC had fingered have been found worthy of becoming ministers. The travesty is unspeakable.

President Tinubu owes the nation a duty to explain the legality and morality of the prolonged detention of the EFCC chairman without trial. If an EFCC chairman can be so casually picked up and incarcerated, then what is the fate of political opponents and everyday people? The brazenness of the arbitrariness of that detention is frightening. That a government that professes the rule of law and freedom from mountain tops can so whimsically detain a high-profile public official for over two months without compunction, without the urge to give any reasons, even if farcical but face-saving reasons, is alarming.

An EFCC chairman isn’t beyond scrutiny. By all means lawful, a corrupt EFCC chairman must be exposed and punished. But the handling of any criminal investigations against the head of anti-corruption commission who has fought jackals and hyenas in high places must be transparent. The agency must be insulated from the vindictiveness of politics.

The need to incarcerate a man for two months before bringing him before a judge is ludicrous. Two months suggests a fishing expedition propelled by petty vendetta. None of this helps institution building. President Tinubu can’t be restoring hope with one hand and engaging in suppressing constitutional freedoms on the other. Even if an Oyenusi or Anini found his way to the headship of 

the EFCC, the process of indictment and prosecution must meet ethical standards in the interest of the institution. A president who was a victim of tyranny shouldn’t legitimize arbitrariness. Tinubu should be allergic to human rights abuses. The real tragedy is that he seems unperturbed. This isn’t about Bawa. If it can happen to Bawa then nobody is safe. The most worrisome aspect is the refractoriness of the government to rife insinuations that the man must have incurred the wrath of corrupt persons on whose toes he must have stepped in the performance of his job. Nothing has compelled the government to defend its bizarre actions.

Bad precedents are tough poisonous weeds. Easy to sprout, but difficult to eradicate. The EFCC is arguably the only agency that has the ability and conviction to chase thieves in high offices. All the other agencies are capable of brute force and noise, but lack the ability to investigate and prosecute with any sustained diligence to secure convictions and deter criminals. Though the EFCC is metamorphosing into a dog that barks at politicians and bites yahoo-yahoo boys, its antecedents and presence still bother a few roguish politicians. The new president can’t reform the EFCC by making it a prey for other law enforcement agencies. This president suffered a psychological scare from Omenka, Mustapha and Co. He can’t start his reign by breeding clandestinity of any hue in the criminal justice system. 

Under Buhari, the head of the EFCC resisted attempts by some powerful politicians to hijack the organization to derail it. 

When the subterranean manoeuvre failed, the hyenas discarded all pretence and swooped on the Chairman of the EFCC. Some concocted evidence was shown to the president. 

One sunny afternoon, a truckload of policemen went after the EFCC Chairman as they would have if he were a drug baron. The policemen blocked him on the road and marched him to the villa. 

A retired Appeal Court judge was dusted up to lead an inquiry. As the fishing expedition gulped millions of tax-payers money, a presidential spokesman told an anxious public to await shaking revelations. Months came and months passed, the inquiry fished and fished. When the rigmarole ended, it produced a white paper filled with chaff. In a bizarre twist at the end, the persecuted head of EFCC was promoted by the police service commission. But the hyenas weren’t perturbed. Their selfish game plan was to replace the man had been achieved. The perception that politicians are determined to castrate and defang the EFCC and convert it to their pet dog seems founded.

All the corrupt politicians in the country would want the EFCC moribund or dead. That is why the plight of the EFCC is the plight of the poor. To be an effective anti-corruption agency, the EFCC must be shielded to some degree from the predatoriness of its wily siblings and the cunning savagery of corrupt politicians. If the president wants to disband the EFCC then he must do it boldly. Nothing damages the morale of the young men and women taking personal and collective risks in holding wild politicians accountable more than the government appearing to side with corrupt politicians.

The appointment of fingered politicians into higher offices rubbishes the whole attempt by the EFCC to foster accountability and cage impunity. Against this unabashed fraternity with decadence, this naked usurpation of the constitutional rights of the EFCC chairman is scary. It wouldn’t be less egregious if the man is eventually found guilty of corruption.

The EFCC has its problems. The agency must recruit from a pool of young people shaped by a society that is bereft of taboos and adores ill-gotten wealth. So inevitably it takes in many rotten eggs. National recruitments aren’t done by merit alone. So the agency hires a good share of indolence and mediocrity. Despite these natural handicaps, the EFCC is the only agency that takes internal regulation seriously. In most other agencies, money buys everything including promotions. In the EFCC, the staff worry about queries and infractions.

It is possible that corruption exists even at the helm and so the agency shouldn’t be spared aggressive external scrutiny. But the integrity of the EFCC is squashed when the head of the EFCC is picked up from the streets like a vagrant chicken without the merest of an indictment by an EFCC internal process. Nigeria is replete with corrupt agencies. The Immigration Service and Customs are good examples. But ironically, it’s only the EFCC that goes through tribulations in the hands of politicians. It’s a striking parody. Mattawalle is now a member of the Federal Executive Council and the EFCC is mute.