In a candid and thought-provoking conversation during a visitation by the Centre for Crisis Communication (CCC), EFCC’s Chairman, Dr Ola Olukoyede, shed light on the pervasive issue of corruption in Nigeria, revealing a startling paradox. While Nigerians vociferously complain about corruption, many simultaneously defend and protect corrupt leaders, perpetuating a culture of impunity. Olukoyede’s remarks underscore the urgent need for Nigerians to reexamine their values and demand accountability from their leaders, serving as a clarion call for a collective effort to eradicate corruption and foster a more just society.

The Executive Chairman of the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC), Ola Olukoyede, asserts that while Nigerians publicly denounce corruption, they paradoxaround corrupt leaders when faced with prosecution. This contradiction undermines the fight against corruption and calls into question the collective commitment to accountability and integrity.

Olukoyede said underdevelopment would be a thing of the past if every citizen saw corruption as a common enemy.

“Everybody is crying that Nigerians are corrupt, that the system is corrupt; that corruption is killing us and destroying our system,” he said while receiving officials of the Centre for Crisis Communication (CCC), led by Chris Olukolade, on Friday in Abuja.

According to Olukoyede, collaborating and creating synergy with the CCC will enhance strategic communication and public engagement. He emphasized that public support is essential for the success of the EFCC.

He noted that the EFCC will work together to increase public awareness about its activities and to promote the importance of integrity among Nigerians.

“When we investigate high profile cases and arraign people in court, the same people will carry placards and be supporting corrupt leaders. It doesn’t show that we are serious about this fight. The fight is supposed to be a collaborative effort.

“No single agency can do it alone. It is practically impossible for us, as EFCC, to fight all the battles. The society has a role to play; policy has a role to play and the issue of welfare of the citizens has a role to play.”

The EFCC boss discussed the direction of his leadership, emphasizing that he has prioritized prevention over enforcement since taking charge.

In addition to prevention, he highlighted the importance of intelligence gathering in the Commission’s operations, which has played a key role in some of its recent impressive successes.

“Now we are laying more emphasis on prevention, which is a critical aspect of our mandate. We don’t have to always be waiting for money to be stolen before we start working in EFCC. To drive prevention, I established a new directorate called Fraud Risk Assessment and Control, FRAC, and now we are doing more of the blocking of the leakages.

“We have access to GIFMIS (government payment platform). We want to track and see where every money released is going. We want to ensure that every capital project is executed. With prevention, we discovered that there will be less to enforce.

“We are not dropping our mandate on enforcement. As a matter of fact, we are scaling it up. But we believe that it is important for us to prevent it because it costs less to prevent than to react when the deed must have been done. So that is one of our areas of focus as of now.”