The President, Alumni Association of the National Institute, AANI, Ambassador Emmmanuel Obi Okafor, has lauded the initiatives, drives and novel ideas of the Executive Chairman of the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission, EFCC, Mr. Ola Olukoyede in offering the Commission a new direction, assuring that his association is fully behind him.
Okafor gave this assurance in Abuja yesterday when he led members of the Association on a courtesy visit to the EFCC Chairman at the Commission’s corporate headquarters.
“This courtesy visit is to tell you that we support you. It is also to assure you that you are doing a very good job. People don’t like those who fight corruption and that is why corruption fights back. We want to assure you that you have the backing of AANI. We are going to partner with you. You are not alone,” he said.
In his response, Olukoyede appreciated the senior citizens for the visit and expressed willingness to draw from their wealth of experience in public service, researches and studies, particularly in the area of fighting corruption, which he identified as the biggest roadblock to Nigeria’s progress and development.
“When it comes to public service it can only be to our advantage to learn from you. The greatest challenge that we have in this country is the issue of corruption. Corruption is like fuel that ignites all kinds of vices and evil in society. If you are talking about national development and you have not dealt with the issue of corruption, you have not started,” he said.
Speaking further, the EFCC boss disclosed that only effective preventive mechanisms can address the country’s entrenched corruption, pointing out that greater progress would be made if Nigerians showed more commitment to the fight against economic and financial crimes.
“Fundamentally, I discovered that Nigerians are not patently corrupt people. The problem we have is the system we run. But we cannot do anything about the system unless we go to the root of the system. So if we can channel more strength to prevention, it will leave us with little work to do in the area of investigation and prosecution,” he said.
He expressed optimism that Nigeria would overcome the challenge of corruption. “I know one day, we will get there. The preventive framework is designed in such a way that stealing can no longer be done without being checked. We will not wait for money to be stolen. It costs more to recover stolen funds than to prevent them from being stolen. We have developed the Fraud Risk Assessment and Control framework and it offers better prospects of tackling graft,” he said.
