On Wednesday (Oct. 18, 2023), the Senate approved Ola Olukoyede’s nomination to serve as the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission’s substantive chairman.
As he answered questions from the senators during his screening, Olukoyode advised them to make sure that the National Assembly is where the fight against corruption starts.
He said that it didn’t matter whose ox was gored; he was ready to labor.
“From this sacred chamber, let the battle against corruption begin.
“If you are fighting corruption, you become the enemy of everybody,” he said.
Olukoyede declared that the time had come for all anti-corruption organizations to shift their emphasis from enforcement to prevention.
He said,” Enforcement is a very strong tool in our hands and we are going to apply it very seriously.
“Without downplaying the importance of enforcement, there is what we call a transactional credit system. If we continue to allow Nigerians to buy houses, cars and other luxurious properties by cash, because we don’t have an effective credit system, one thousand anti-corruption agencies will not do us any good and that is the reality.
“We must create an atmosphere to make sure that people have choices. If I don’t steal money, can I afford to train my children in school with good standards? If I don’t steal money, can I buy a car after I have worked for five years? If I don’t steal money, can I put a three-room bungalow in place after I have worked for 20 years?
“An average Nigerian does not own a home, when he has the opportunity, he would steal. Even if he does not have the opportunity he would create one.”
The newly appointed chairman of the EFCC also urged the courts to handle corruption cases with a focus on substantive justice rather than procedural justice.
“We must encourage our criminal justice system to adjudicate in such a way that it will not drag for a very long time.
“Prosecution should not be allowed to last for a maximum of five years from the court of first instance to the Supreme Court. The Senate can work on that very seriously. If we make the administration of the criminal justice system really work, you will see the great work the anti-corruption agencies are doing,” Olukoyede added.
He asserted that there was a link between the country’s low standard of life and the growth of corruption.
“The savings of an average civil servant in Nigeria all through his service years cannot build the type of houses they are building and cars they are riding.
“The problem we have is just like the proverbial monkey that was locked up in a cage with a bunch of ripe bananas. The owner stood outside with a cane. The monkey would either eat the bananas, get beaten and be alive, or allow the bananas to get rotten and die of hunger,” he stated.
He added, “I will do more in the areas of blocking the leakages. We spend more money fighting corruption when we could have spent less to prevent it.”
The EFCC chairman noted that Nigeria lost a total of N2.9tn to procurement fraud in three years.
According to him, he did a survey between 2018 and 2020 on 50 entities in Nigeria; both human and corporate entities.
Olukoyede narrated, “I picked just one scheme, one species of fraud, which is called contract and procurement fraud. I discovered that within the three years, Nigeria lost N2.9tn.
“When I put my figures together, I discovered that if the country had prevented the money from being stolen, it would have given us 1,000 kilometres of road, it would have built close to 200 standard tertiary institutions; it would have also educated about 6,000 children from
