The leadership of the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC) has disclosed its utmost intention to make local government councils across the country the next port of call in its battle against graft in the country.
The commission plans to “buy in” people at the grassroots to achieve its desire to fight corruption in the local councils.
Ola Olukoyede, chairman of EFCC divulged this during a two-day workshop for local government officials in Kaduna State.
The event was organised by Kaduna state’s Ministry of Local Government where the anti graft chair was represented by Aisha Abubakar, Zonal Commander of the commission. He spoke on a paper titled: “Enhancing Fiscal Discipline in the Management of Local Government.”
Olukoyede explained that the decision to beam the searchlight on the councils was because of wastages and a near lack of democracy dividends at the grassroots.
He stated that once the EFCC was able to achieve the policy objective of driving economic development by stopping stealing and wastage of public funds, governance would become simple.
According to him: “All over the world and especially in Africa, local government is structured as a means of enhancing development and service delivery, improving governance and deepening democracy.
“Fiscal discipline has to do with prudent management of resources. It has to do with financial discipline and integrity, accountability and transparency in the allocation of resources.
“The local environment in Nigeria is where the bulk of our people lives. This means that local government administration must be sensitive to the needs of the people. There is no way we can have enough resources for the people, but when we apply discipline in the allocation of what we have, we will be able to meet many of the needs at the grassroots.
“The EFCC under my watch will encourage genuine efforts geared towards meeting the needs of the people. We will require local people to be ready to offer information to us on how their resources are being used.’’.
Olukayede called on Nigerians, especially those at the grassroots to join the agency in exposing corrupt practices.
He clearly echoed: “Let me stress here, that corruption has no colour, no tribe and religion. The people who steal Nigeria’s resources are both Christians and Muslims. It is not a battle between religions; the corruption fight is also not between tribes. What we are fighting in this country is a battle between good and evil; it is a collective battle for the soul of Nigeria; a battle for the future generation of yet unborn Nigerians; it is indeed, the battle for the future of Africa.
“We must not create an environment where when we punish people because they have engaged in corruption, we will give them protection because they come from our tribes.”
He continued further: “The quest to ensure that we do not create an environment for the corrupt to take over our society belongs to every one of us. It should not be left only to the EFCC and sister anti-graft agencies. It is against this backdrop that I reiterate the need for buy-in of the grassroots, which is the local governments, in the fight against graft.”
