By Charles Ike-Okoh
WED, JULY 08 2020-theG&BJournal– The arrest of the now suspended acting Chairman of the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC), Mr Ibrahim Magu casts an unsettling light on one thing that Nigeria and Nigerian leaders has refused to let go: Corruption.
Magu demonstrated beyond any reasonable doubt his unfitness for the office when he said on a national television recently that the completion of the EFCC office edifice was an example of building institutions.
Fighting corruption without efforts at institutional reforms and restructuring is like chasing a mirage which is why we have spectacularly failed in that battle since 1966.
Magu’s arrest on allegations of corruption is the latest in the concatenation of events unmasking the hypocrisy of administrations in the country since independence as nothing more than demagoguery deployed for the purposes of power capture for selfish ends.
He held the office of Chairman of EFCC without Senate confirmation for nearly five years in clear breach of the law. His arrest is not an indication of a new desire to be law-abiding but a fallout of an egregious power-play that ultimately harms Nigeria in and of itself.
He is just one of the symptoms of the ”legal” forms of corruption pervading the country today.
His arrest will be an added credibility question- alongside the numerous others hanging over the Commission’s work. But it is also an opportunity for the Federal Government to contemplate past follies that led to the cracked credibility of the agency and reach agreement on the imperative of avoiding further examples.
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