The Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC) on Tuesday outlined Nigeria’s significant progress in the fight against corruption over the past year, despite global perceptions to the contrary.
EFCC Chairman, Ola Olukoyede, shared insights into the country’s strengthened anti-corruption efforts, citing the financial autonomy granted to Local Government Areas through a Supreme Court ruling as a key example.
Olukoyede made the remarks during his goodwill message at the Public Presentation of the Report on the Review of Transparency International’s Corruption Perception Index (TI-CPI) Assessments for 2019-2024, organized by the Technical Unit on Governance & Anti-Corruption Reforms in Abuja.
The EFCC boss described the financial autonomy as a significant achievement that has yet to receive the international recognition it deserves.
He said, “I slowly say the fact that in the last one year, the various stakeholders, the anti-corruption department, including the legislature, including the executive and the judiciary, we have made some tangible progress in our fight against corruption.
“And we know what is going on behind that.There was this very intervention. Of course, you are all aware about the Supreme Court judgment on the financial autonomy of the local government. That is a great relief.
“The international community does not acknowledge that. We have to acknowledge that by ourselves and form it up. It is a key development and advancement in the course of fighting corruption.”
According to him, Nigeria has been
having a series of legislative interventions that have made the fight easy to execute.
He recalled that it was a legislative intervention that in this year culminated in the increase of the allocations to the anti-graft agencies to operate independently.
He said regrettably, the Transparency International would never mention the feat.
Olukoyede said, “And so we must also acknowledge the intervention in the legislature this year, where we increased the allocations of most anti-corruption agencies in Nigeria and the independent stakeholders doing this work. So we must also acknowledge that TI may not capture that.”
He noted that it was unprecedented for any country to seize 700 apartments as the EFCC did last year.
He added that it was from a single operation 790 suspects including foreigners were arrested.
According to him, some countries that ranked higher than Nigeria in the Transparency Index were among the arrested suspects. (TheNation)