Ribadu, EFCC Chairman, Calls for Speedy Passage of FOI Bill

ABUJA, THURSDAY, APRIL 14, 2005: The work of the Nigerian government’s anti-corruption agencies would be enhanced by the passage of the Freedom of Information Bill into law, Mr. Nuhu Ribadu, chairman of the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC) said today.

Speaking in Abuja at the opening of a two-day National Summit on Transparency and Accountability organized by the Federal Government Inter-Agency Committee on Anti-Corruption and the international human rights NGO, Global Rights, Mr. Ribadu called on the National Assembly to speed up the process of enacting the Bill into law.

In a speech delivered on his behalf by Ms Juliet Ume-Ezeoke, EFCC’s Head of External Cooperation, he said: “EFCC is fully in support of the Freedom of Information Bill and the Whistleblowers Bill which (are) currently before the National Assembly.  We urge the National Assembly to hasten the process of passing the two Bills into law in order to enhance the work of anti-corruption agencies in Nigeria.”

Mr. Ribadu, arguably Nigeria’s most feared anti-corruption official, noted that a Freedom of Information Act would improve the transparency and accountability rating of the country by Transparency International, adding: “The FOI Act will ensure that public records which were hitherto shrouded in secrecy can be made available in the public domain for public scrutiny and thus create an enabling environment for fraud prevention and corruption control.”

Similarly, he observed, the Whistleblowers Act will “protect those who bear the burden of reporting insiders’ dealings and corrupt practices.”

Soliciting the assistance of civil society in raising public consciousness about issues related to corruption as well as economic and financial crimes, the former police officer urged civil society organizations to also embark on a process of internal cleansing.

He said: “Civil society should be ready to spend more time in building more monitoring mechanisms to address both internal and external corrupt practices.  Such acts of corruption, money laundering and economic crimes can occur in the private or public sector institutions.  Therefore, as you turn your searchlight on government agencies, we also expect you to turn it inwards amongst your members, and on the private sector institutions.”

According to Mr. Ribadu, in carrying out its task, the EFCC has relied on the goodwill of young men and women who have sacrificed a lot to ensure the success of its investigation and prosecutions.

But he stressed that civil society was a constituency which the EFCC must seek its support in order to succeed in tracking down perpetrators of economic crimes wherever they may be located, adding that “We are convinced that the press and the civil society are potent weapon in the struggle for democracy and good governance in Nigeria.”

Mr. Ribadu announced that the Commission was in the process of developing an internal policy and structure that will enable it to effectively build a partnership with civil society groups.

But he warned that every effort is being made to ensure that only civil society organizations which it can vouch for their integrity will be co-opted into the crime prevention mechanisms which it plans to set up in a few weeks and urged “civil society to act as a watchdog for its members.”