He said, “Quite frankly, the enabling and operating environment in Nigeria vis-a-vis anti-corruption war, has not been very encouraging.
“Issues such as legal technicalities, lack of cooperation from some states and local governments, public attitude towards corruption, the phenomenon of corruption mentality in Nigeria; as well as slow judicial system occasioned by tactics of defence lawyers and interlocutory appeals, seriously undermine the commission’s efforts in taming corruption.
“It is very, very difficult for the EFCC case to die expect it is concluded, if you see a case, maybe investigation is still ongoing”.
“Now we are in Ibadan, we used to be in Lagos which is taking care of the whole of South West, now Ibadan is taking care of Oyo, Osun, Ondo, Ekiti and part of Kwara state. Even in Ibadan that is far from the seat of power in Abuja, cases of corruption are recorded on daily basis. In the academic, it encourages mediocrity over meritocrity.
“Those who are corrupt are worse than armed robbers, you see armed robbers, you can fight them but these people, you will not know that they have collected your money. They can kill, in fact, some of them kill before they get the money.
“Since when Ibadan Zonal Office started operation, 3 Vice Chancellors are already in EFCC, you can see that even in the academic, we want to try as much as possible to make sure things does not go beyond that”.
“However, the commission’s response to this is to enhance the capacities of her operatives. Exposures to the requisite skills are constantly and regularly encouraged so that our investigation can be water tight and in conformity with the international best practices. I can say unequivocally that our cases are diligently investigated before going to court so as to ensure fair trail and corresponding judgment”.
“Socio-culturally, we engage and interface regularly with the public through town hall meetings and use every availing platform to discourage the get-rich-quick syndrome and flamboyant living.
“In conclusion, all hand must be on the deck to ensure we succeed in the fight against corruption. We consider everybody a stakeholder, as the EFCC does not have monopoly of knowledge to defeat all shade of graft. We all have a role to play as an individual and it is when we all change our attitude that we can see it reflected in the society. No doubt, all stakeholders and functional institutions are crucial in the maintenance of a high quality of moral values within the social system and the success or failure of our fight against corruption will depend on our willingness to take the fight through an ethical path”.
“Whenever we check religion as a factor for corruption in the world today, we are actually indulging in an odious conflation of the spirit.
“We forget factors such as ignorance of the majority of adherence of the various religions and wrong interpretation of the religion text by a coterie of incompetent scholars most of whom are usually authoritarian in their approach to religious texts.
“We forget factor of greed and materialism, it is the combination of these factors that has turn places where religion could be found.
“Politicians engage in material corruption and religious leader engage in spiritual corruption. Politicians steal from the nation purse why religious leaders steal from God’s purse”.
“Knowledge of evil and refusal to combat it is double punishment”.
