{"id":464022,"date":"2011-07-19T12:11:36","date_gmt":"2011-07-19T12:11:36","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.ghanamma.net\/2011\/07\/19\/nigeria-adokes-verdict-on-icpc-and-efcc\/"},"modified":"2011-07-19T12:11:36","modified_gmt":"2011-07-19T12:11:36","slug":"nigeria-adokes-verdict-on-icpc-and-efcc","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.ghanamma.com\/2011\/07\/19\/nigeria-adokes-verdict-on-icpc-and-efcc\/","title":{"rendered":"Nigeria: Adoke’s Verdict On ICPC and EFCC"},"content":{"rendered":"
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\"Daily<\/a><\/p>\n

19 July 2011<\/p>\n

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Mohammed Bello Adoke, SAN, the returning Attorney General of the Federation and Minister of Justice made some caustic, some might say disparaging, remarks pertaining to the activities of the nation’s anti-corruption organizations.<\/p>\n

At his confirmation hearings before the Senate, Adoke remarked that the Independent Corrupt Practices and Other Related Offences Commission (ICPC) and the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC) lacked the capacity required of them to investigate and prosecute economic crimes in the country. There may be some elements of truth in his observations. However, Mr Adoke’s recommendations on how the lapses he said existed can be remedied is suspect. The AGF called for a merger of the two main anti-graft agencies, arguing that their functions overlapped and that the competition necessitated by this undermined their effectiveness. His desideratum has serious flaws.<\/p>\n

First, a merger of the two agencies would make it easier for politicians to control the resulting entity, effectively scuppering the entire fight against corruption. The gravity of the consequence of any merger far outweighs whatever benefit may be derived from a merger, such as the cost-saving hoped for. Mr Adoke’s real motive is unclear, not only in the call for a merger of the two leading anti-corruption agencies but in publicly repudiating them, which amounted to trying to undermine them.<\/p>\n

This is especially so when it is recalled that from June 2010 to February 2011, the Minister is known to have withdrawn and influenced the discontinuation of about 25 high-profile cases, including those pertaining to bribery scandals involving senior government officials, including current ministers in relation to telephone company Siemens and the US oil services multinational, Halliburton.<\/p>\n

There also is the one involving the Anosike Brothers (Fidelis and Noel) who were charged at a Federal High Court for alleged conspiracy and stealing of over 3 billion naira worth of properties belonging to the publishing company, The Daily Times of Nigeria. Contrary to the position of the Attorney General, a healthy competition among the anti-graft agencies under a regulator will improve rather than undermine their effectiveness. Smaller countries like Philippines have up to 15 anti corruption agencies with streamlined functions.<\/p>\n

If, as Adoke rightly said, the ICPC and the EFCC had been unable to secure convictions in many of the cases they handled, it is important to ask why this is so. For instance, what are the relative contributions of both the alleged lack of prosecutorial capacity and the suspected commoditisation of our justice system in the alleged failure of these agencies to secure more convictions in high-profile cases? Curiously the AGF and Minister of Justice said nothing about reforming the justice system, over which he superintends, to ensure that justice is swiftly and boldly dispensed. This is of course not to suggest that both ICPC and the EFCC do not need their prosecutorial capacities to be beefed up. But this should not be at the whims of politicians with an axe to grind.<\/p>\n

It is true, as Mr Adoke noted, that some anti-corruption agencies, in particular the EFCC in its early years, indulged in a lot in media trial of suspects. While this unusual mode need to be discouraged, it is understandable why the agencies are often approbated by the public.<\/p>\n

In a situation where many citizens believe that the justice system is commoditised, the naming and shaming of suspected corrupt individuals in the court of public opinion is seen by some as a necessary slap on the wrist – before they buy their way out of the justice system. The media trial often indulged in by agencies like the EFCC may therefore have a place in the fight against corruption under the current dispensation, where the justice system is itself in dire need for reform.<\/p>\n

The regrettable flipside to this of course is that some innocent individuals may also be shamed and prematurely condemned in this court of public opinion. A fight against corruption therefore cannot be complete without the fight being carried to the justice system. That is what Mr Adoke should be speaking out about.<\/p>\n

Corruption is both a systemic problem and a moral issue. The anti-corruption agencies, on their own, cannot win the war, without the system being reformed and a re-orientation in our current value system.<\/p>\n

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19 July 2011 Mohammed Bello Adoke, SAN, the returning Attorney General of the Federation and Minister of Justice made some caustic, some might say disparaging, remarks pertaining to the activities of the nation’s anti-corruption organizations. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":0,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-464022","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard"],"yoast_head":"\nNigeria: Adoke's Verdict On ICPC and EFCC - Ghanamma.com<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.ghanamma.com\/2011\/07\/19\/nigeria-adokes-verdict-on-icpc-and-efcc\/\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:title\" content=\"Nigeria: Adoke's Verdict On ICPC and EFCC - Ghanamma.com\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:description\" content=\"19 July 2011 Mohammed Bello Adoke, SAN, the returning Attorney General of the Federation and Minister of Justice made some caustic, some might say disparaging, remarks pertaining to the activities of the nation's anti-corruption organizations.\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:image\" content=\"http:\/\/allafrica.com\/img\/static\/publishers\/minibanners\/dailytrust180.jpg\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:creator\" content=\"@ghanamma\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:site\" content=\"@ghanamma\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Est. reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"4 minutes\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\/\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"Article\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.ghanamma.com\/2011\/07\/19\/nigeria-adokes-verdict-on-icpc-and-efcc\/#article\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.ghanamma.com\/2011\/07\/19\/nigeria-adokes-verdict-on-icpc-and-efcc\/\"},\"author\":{\"name\":\"\",\"@id\":\"\"},\"headline\":\"Nigeria: Adoke’s Verdict On ICPC and EFCC\",\"datePublished\":\"2011-07-19T12:11:36+00:00\",\"mainEntityOfPage\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.ghanamma.com\/2011\/07\/19\/nigeria-adokes-verdict-on-icpc-and-efcc\/\"},\"wordCount\":732,\"commentCount\":0,\"image\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.ghanamma.com\/2011\/07\/19\/nigeria-adokes-verdict-on-icpc-and-efcc\/#primaryimage\"},\"thumbnailUrl\":\"http:\/\/allafrica.com\/img\/static\/publishers\/minibanners\/dailytrust180.jpg\",\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"CommentAction\",\"name\":\"Comment\",\"target\":[\"https:\/\/www.ghanamma.com\/2011\/07\/19\/nigeria-adokes-verdict-on-icpc-and-efcc\/#respond\"]}]},{\"@type\":\"WebPage\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.ghanamma.com\/2011\/07\/19\/nigeria-adokes-verdict-on-icpc-and-efcc\/\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.ghanamma.com\/2011\/07\/19\/nigeria-adokes-verdict-on-icpc-and-efcc\/\",\"name\":\"Nigeria: Adoke's Verdict On ICPC and EFCC - 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