It has become increasingly evident that the anti-corruption war is failing woefully. On an almost daily basis, mind-boggling revelations come to light. There is no point blaming the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC) because they are not structured in a manner, which enables them to fight corruption effectively!

Corruption erodes trust in government, weakens democracy and hampers economic development. Nigerians correctly understand corruption to be any fraudulent conduct by those in political office, which leads to their personal benefit at the expense of the general public. Nowhere in the EFCC mandate does it specifically refer to corruption, which by strict definition is the abuse of entrusted power for private gain. Rather than focusing solely on eliminating corruption, the functions of the EFCC are wide and include investigating advance fee fraud, money laundering, counterfeiting, illegal fund transfers, financial market fraud, love contract scams, and all other financial crimes which could be effectively investigated and successfully prosecuted by an efficient police fraud squad.

For many years, the nation’s capital, Abuja has been home to displays of ill-gotten wealth and dividends of corruption evidenced by privately owned housing estates and shopping malls. Recently, the EFCC achieved its biggest ever asset seizure of an estate comprising 753 duplexes. Nobody knows what will happen to the duplexes. There are suggestions that they should be developed for ministers and senior civil servants. This idea should be discounted immediately. The nation has already lost far too much money constructing places like FESTAC, APO quarters, and official mansions for judges, military chiefs and top political office holders, which were sold for meagre amounts or even given away freely to the occupants. This particular estate should be converted to low cost housing so that the poor, not the relatively well off, can benefit from the ongoing massive corruption.

Any nation where a single public officer can corruptly acquire such an estate, while the majority of citizens live below the international poverty line is an administrative disgrace. It’s been posited that the money sunk into the estate could have solved many of the nation’s pressing problems such as ending the routine justifiable strikes by the Academic Staff Union of Universities (ASUU), who complain of government’s failure to abide by financial agreements. The money could have been used to increase salaries of doctors and nurses, and upgrade public hospitals to stem the flow of medical staff annually fleeing Nigeria for better pay and improved working conditions. It could have been used to send more children to school and create jobs for numerous unemployed youths.

Justice Muhammed Lawal Shuaibu, a presiding judge at the Court of Appeal, Sokoto Division expressed his frustration over the continuing presence of corrupt individuals in positions of power and urged the EFCC to focus on “high profile” figures involved with corrupt practices rather than targeting “yahoo boys”. He bemoaned judges, who issue ex-parte orders granting high profile individuals immunity and quite correctly emphasised that targeting such people is crucial for achieving a stable society. In truth, any serious discussion about the economic well-being of Nigeria must focus on creating an efficient and effective anti-corruption agency dedicated solely to eliminating corruption by deterrence through successful prosecution and punishment of offenders. Corruption is a manifestation of deviant behaviour, which harms the state, therefore, requires far more retribution than criminal behaviour, which only affects an individual or small group of persons.

Truly massive corruption is the most heinous of crimes due to its opportunity costs, yet those involved are not deterred because they suffer little personal ill-effects. Seizure of this particular property means nothing to the owner because it was not a revenue yielding asset, and there is likely much more money where it came from. The EFCC’s perverse defence of their decision not to disclose the identity of the owner has led to accusations that they routinely shield powerful individuals. It is incomprehensible that the basis for forfeiture of the estate was Section 17 of the Advance Fee Fraud Act and yet they cannot state the name of the person or persons involved. The explanation that Section 17 allows for civil action targeting property rather than individuals borders on the ridiculous because at the end of the day property cannot commit crime!

The Republic of China takes a different approach to their anti-corruption war. All human actions have either positive or negative consequences and in law the death penalty is imposed as the most severe form of punishment for behaviour with negative consequences. Nigeria like China still imposes the death penalty for various crimes, but unlike China, we do not impose the death penalty for corruption. Until it becomes the penalty for massive corruption, mindless treasury looting will continue unabated. China’s zero tolerance for corruption is real as their former Justice Minister, Fu Zhenghua was sentenced to death for accepting bribes of over $16 million. Li Jianping, who once headed a special economic zone in Hohhot was also sentenced to death for embezzling $420 million.  Lai Xiaomin was put to death in January 2021 for taking almost 1.8 billion Yuan in bribes and his subordinate Bai Tianhui was also handed the death penalty for embezzling public funds. In Nigeria, things are different because unprincipled legal practitioners, corrupt judges, and the EFCC’s emphasis on recovering money or assets rather than punishing offenders, all assist in facilitating ever increasing levels of corruption. The simple solution is the death penalty for government officials who engage in corrupt practices.