‘Anti-corruption agencies must be independent for effective war against poverty’

A former Senator, Ikechukwu Obiorah, says anti-corruption agencies must be independent of political influences in order to be effective.

Speaking when he appeared on Arise Television’s ‘The Morning Show’, Sen. Obiorah said he was not speaking as an anti-corruption crusader because as he said “we are all sinners” but that he had leveraged the knowledge of there being no saints amongst us to lay out a plan of detailed outline of steps the Nigerian government must take to get value for public funds, which he said would lead to development and achieve meaningful poverty reduction among the populace.

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Referring to his book, ‘How to lift Nigeria out of poverty’, the ex-lawmaker said Chapter 2 highlights major areas in the public sector where amendments must be made to achieve the desired results in the nation’s anti-corruption fight.

First, he said, the anti-corruption agencies must be granted total independence by the removal of any political influence on the operations of the agencies, including appointment and dismissal of heads of such bodies.

“The President should lose the power to make any appointment or removal or suspension of persons from office in Independent Corrupt Practices and other related offenses Commission (ICPC), the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC), Code of Conduct Bureau (CCB) and the proposed Directorate of Public Prosecutions (DPP)”, he stated, adding that the membership of the agencies should be made ex-officio, that is membership by virtue of being nominated through an election by any of the prescribed organizations such as NBA, ICAN, ASUU, ASUP, NLC, and NUJ, in addition to these, the UN would nominate six members for each of the above anti-corruption bodies. The commission or Board would have power to appoint and remove the DG and a part time chairman by two thirds majority vote.”

Obiorah said the second step should be amending the constitution to transform the Director Public Prosecutions into the separate Directorate of Public Prosecutions and vesting it with all the powers relating to prosecutions hitherto held by the Attorney General. Membership of the Directorate would be lawyers nominated ex officio by NBA, law Professors nominated by ASUU and international lawyers nominated by the UN.

The third step to be taken, he continued, is providing massive information flow on all public sector expenditures, including the smallest details such as the cost of the President’s breakfast or travel allowance.

Sen. Obiorah said financial books on government spending should be made easily accessible to public without the process of formal applications as in the case of the Freedom of Information Act.