The Holy Bible says “If the foundations be destroyed, What can the righteous do?”
Foundation in this context simply means the starting point of origin.
The starting point of EFCC since its establishment seems to be faulty based on the suit filed by 16 state Governors before the supreme Court.
One fact so far established is that the EFCC’s enabling act was enacted without input from state assemblies, violating the principles of federalism and state autonomy.
We believe that getting the foundation right would go a long way to assist the war against corruption and erase heaps of allegations against all anti graft agencies, especially the EFCC which haa been seen by many Nigerians as fighting Proxy wars for Nigeria’s Presidents.
The state governments, in their suit, had argued that the Supreme Court, in Dr Joseph Nwobike Vs Federal Republic of Nigeria, held that it was a United Nations Convention against corruption that was reduced into the EFCC Establishment Act and that in enacting the law in 2004, the provision of Section 12 of the 1999 Constitution, as amended, was not followed.
They argued that in bringing a convention into Nigerian law, the provision of Section 12 must be complied with.
According to the plaintiffs, the provision of the Constitution necessitated the majority of the states’ houses of assembly agreeing to bring the convention in before passing the EFCC Act and others, which was allegedly never done.
The argument of the states in their present suit, which had reportedly been corroborated by the Supreme Court in the previous case mentioned, is that the law, as enacted, could not be applied to states that never approved of it, in accordance with the provisions of the Nigerian constitution.
Hence, they argued that any institution so formed should be regarded as an illegal institution.
Similarly, A Senior Advocates of Nigeria, Dr Olisa Agbakoba has expressed views on the constitutionality of the EFCC.
Agbakoba, a former President of the Nigerian Bar Association, wrote to the National Assembly about constitutional issues related to law enforcement agencies in Nigeria and factors inhibiting the government’s objective of abolishing corruption, as stated in Section 13 of the Constitution.
In two separate letters to the Senate and House of Representatives, dated October 14, 2024, he stated that the EFCC was an unlawful organisation that he believed was “unconstitutionally established.”
He said, “I very strongly believe the EFCC is unconstitutionally established. The powers under which it was established go beyond the powers of the National Assembly. The EFCC is an unlawful organisation.”
We urge the supreme Court to make things right considering the provision of the constitution.
This lawsuit, if pursuit to a logically conclusion, would have far-reaching implications for Nigeria’s federal system, anti-corruption efforts, and democratic governance.
The Federal Government must be sincere and look at the reason the EFCC appeared to be consistently embroiled in controversy.
The Defendant to the suit, the Attorney General of the Federation, Lateef Fagbemi on the other hand, did not deny that the Acts were rooted in the United Nations Convention but that the concurrence of States of the Federation as stakeholders was not necessary for the validity of the Acts.
There had been cases of corrupt practices even against the EFCC to establish the fact that it was established on a wrong foundation.
Similarly, there are many high profile corruption cases against many politicians that the anti graft agency has looked away for political reasons. Could this be called fight against corruption ?
EFCC has been known for political oppression and it cannot continue on this path of the first against corruption must be successful.
There are also indications that the Federal Government is allegedly making moves to interfere and put pressure on the Supreme Court not to do the right thing as far as this suit is concerned.
We are optimistic that the apex Court would rise to the occasion as set the record straight without succumbing to pressure from any angle.
We believe that under a democratic setting, the actions taken by the state governments is a legitimate pursuit of constitutional clarity and accountability.
It is clear that there is no genuine fight against corruption in Nigeria and such a trend cannot be allowed to continue in the interest of justice and fairness.
We urge the supreme Court to give room for justice rather than allowing politics becloud the true fight against corruption.
