Economic and Financial Crimes Commission and Anti-Corruption Crusade in Nigeria, (2015-2020)

Abstract

Corruption has proven to be intractable in Nigeria, with resultant consequences on the political, economic and socio-cultural development of the nation. Though past military regimes, before the return to democratic government in 1999, initiated series of anti-corruption crusades at various times, corruption in high and low places continued to be on an alarming increase. With the return to democratic governance, President Olusegun Obasanjo saw to the establishment of the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC) in 2002, which amongst others is vested with the responsibilities of prevention, investigation and prosecution of individuals, groups and institutions found culpable or corrupt, and unearth frauds and recover public loots in the country. After over a decade of the commission’s existence in the country, corruption remain a pandemic, which informed President Muhammadu Buhari’s second major promise during his campaign in 2015, to fight and completely eradicate corruption. Between 2015 and 2020, a lot a successes and failures have punctuated the activities of the commission and this is the thrust of this study. The Institutional Approach was used as the theoretical framework for the study and we relied on materials collected from secondary sources. Among other recommendations of the study, the Federal Government of Nigeria should speedily take steps to establish special courts to deal specifically with corruption cases while the Judicial Service Commission and the Nigeria Bar Association should be strengthened to deal firmly with alleged cases of corruption or misconduct involving Judges and lawyers respectively.