When
former President Olusegun Obasanjo appointed Dora Akunyili as
director-general of National Agency for Food and Drug Administration and
Control, NAFDAC, in April 2001, Akunyili started to reform the
institution from a docile agency that very few in Nigeria knew about to a
very active one with world recognition.
It is instructive to note that the
reforms she carried out at NAFDAC with the support of the then
President, Obasanjo was not because the president asked her to reform
the agency, but it was because of her passion and love for her country.
She carried out her duties diligently
without caring whose ox was gored. She made a lot of Nigerians to be
conscious of NAFDAC and its activities. Nigerians began to check for
expiry dates on products they wanted to buy, especially drugs.
NAFDAC became the most popular
government agency during her spell there. There were many directors of
agencies and heads of parastatals during her stint but Akunyili purposed
in her heart to distinguish herself from the crowd just like Daniel in
the Holy Bible “who purposed in his heart not to defile himself with the
king’s meat”.
Former President Obasanjo, gave the same
instruction he gave to Akunyili to other members of his government; the
difference is that Akunyili saw it as a responsibility and a rare
opportunity to solve a challenge Nigeria was plagued with.
Enter Ibrahim Magu, a former director of
operations at Economic and Financial Crimes Commission, EFCC, and now
the acting EFCC chairman. I see it as a mockery of the intelligence of
Nigerians, to say that it is because of Muhammadu Buhari’s
anti-corruption stance that commission started doing their already
established work of going after corrupt Nigerians.
It simply means that the EFCC is telling
Nigerians that once President Buhari is done with his tenure and the
next president is not anti-corruption inclined, then their job will be
left undone!
Lack of strong institutions seems to be
the major problem with the Nigerian system, everybody is waiting for
their leader to tell them to do their work, not minding the fact that
their salary is statutory. That explains the reason why everything
seemed to be on standstill during the last year of Yar’Adua as
president. Until the “doctrine of necessity” was deployed as a political
solution to make then Vice President Goodluck Jonathan the acting
president.
US President Barack Obama once said that
Africa needs strong institutions and not strong leaders. It goes to
say that once we have strong institutions, Nigerians would not be too
bothered about the posture of the president, because institutions will
function properly whether the president is interested or not.
It is obvious to everyone in Nigeria
that the EFCC will go back to sleep once Buhari leaves office, which
should not be the case.
EFCC has not been successful in
prosecuting corrupt government officials, simply because the anti-graft
agency have been building a house from the roof downwards, instead of
building from the foundation upwards.
The Ibrahim Magu-led EFCC has been
prosecuting suspected corrupt government officials in the media, instead
of gathering enough evidence first. We all know that after all the
media trial, you still have to go to court to prove your case and sadly
that is when EFCC starts to gather evidence. An accused person is
presumed innocent until proven guilty.
The way forward is for Ibrahim Magu to
order his “troops” to stop all the media trial that takes no one to
jail, EFCC should gather enough evidence and assemble a good prosecuting
team before heading to court.
It is foolishness to continue to apply the same method that has yielded no positive result and be expecting things to change.
Magu should focus on building EFCC into a strong institution just like Akunyili did with NAFDAC.
Nigeria can have strong institutions
once people in authority and citizens alike take it as a responsibility
to do the right thing irrespective of the posture of the President in
power.
Chuka Igwegbe writes from Awka, Anambra State. He can be reached by email HERE.
The opinions expressed in this article are solely those of the author.
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