Public Perception of the Activities of Economic Financial Crime Commission (EFCC) in Curbing Corruption
CHAPTER ONE
Objective of the study
his study aims at investigating the public perception of the role of the EFCC in curbing corruption in Ikeja local government area of Lagos state. To achieve this primary objective, the researcher therefore sets the following as the specific objectives of the study, and they are:
- To examine why corruption and corrupt practices are endemic issues in Ikeja area of Lagos state.
- To investigate how efficient and effective is the EFCC in the quest to curb corruption and corrupt practices in Lagos State.
- To highlight some of the challenges of the EFCC in curbing corruption and corrupt practices in Ikeja area and Lagos State as a whole.
- To assess the various State government efforts made in assisting the EFCC officials in carrying out their official tasks/duties of combating crime in Lagos State.
CHAPTER TWO
REVIEW OF RELATED LITERATURE
Corruption in Nigeria and the role of the EFCC
As outlined in Khan et al. (2017), corruption is a structural feature of governance in developing countries where strikingly high levels of informality make it difficult for formal rules to be enforced. Nigeria is no exception (Roy, 2017), and has acquired a reputation as one of the most corrupt countries in the world (Amaechi Onuigbo et al., 2015). Indeed, in 1996 it was ranked by Transparency International’s Corruption Perception Index (CPI) as the most corrupt country in the world (ibid.). Anti-corruption strategies in developing countries have typically been based on vertical enforcement using prosecutions, legal requirements for transparency and accountability, and impartiality for rule of law. While there have been some successes in these types of anticorruption efforts in some countries, sustainable progress has been difficult due to the weakness of horizontal enforcement at a societal level: developing and emerging countries have a high level of ‘informality’, which suggests that large parts of society do not follow formal rules. The problems are unfortunately compounded in Nigeria due to the presence of a significant number of oil reserves. With enormous oil reserves, the culture o0f rent seeking has been entrenched in the extractive sectors, particularly the oil sector which accounts for majority of Nigeria’s revenue. Political corruption is a feature of this informality and is most clearly observed in how rents (described as incremental incomes arising from policy decisions) are allocated. One example of the significant instances of political corruption in Nigeria is the Halliburton scandal involving a conglomerate company Siemens AG and Halliburton, where its former subsidiary, Kellogg Brown & Root (KBR) entered a guilty plea and agreed to pay a US$579 million fine for payment of bribes to secure contracts in Nigeria and other countries. 2 The employees of the foreign conglomerate were prosecuted expeditiously, while the investigation of the senior government officials who allegedly received over US$180 million in bribes fell silent and has possibly been abandoned (Albert and Okoli, 2016).
CHAPTER THREE
RESEARCH METHODOLOGY
Research design
The researcher used descriptive research survey design in building up this project work the choice of this research design was considered appropriate because of its advantages of identifying attributes of a large population from a group of individuals. The design was suitable for the study as the study sought Public Perception Of The Activities Of Economic Financial Crime Commission (EFCC) In Curbing Corruption.
Sources of data collection
Data were collected from two main sources namely:
Primary source:
These are materials of statistical investigation which were collected by the research for a particular purpose. They can be obtained through a survey, observation questionnaire or as experiment; the researcher has adopted the questionnaire method for this study.
Secondary source:
These are data from textbook Journal handset etc. they arise as byproducts of the same other purposes. Example administration, various other unpublished works and write ups were also used.
CHAPTER FOUR
PRESENTATION ANALYSIS INTERPRETATION OF DATA
Introduction
Efforts will be made at this stage to present, analyze and interpret the data collected during the field survey. This presentation will be based on the responses from the completed questionnaires. The result of this exercise will be summarized in tabular forms for easy references and analysis. It will also show answers to questions relating to the research questions for this research study. The researcher employed simple percentage in the analysis.
CHAPTER FIVE
SUMMARY, CONCLUSION AND RECOMMENDATION
Introduction
It is important to ascertain that the objective of this study was to ascertain Public Perception of The Activities Of Economic Financial Crime Commission (EFCC) In Curbing Corruption. In the preceding chapter, the relevant data collected for this study were presented, critically analyzed and appropriate interpretation given. In this chapter, certain recommendations made which in the opinion of the researcher will be of benefits in addressing the challenges of Public Perception of the Activities Of Economic Financial Crime Commission (EFCC) In Curbing Corruption
Summary
This study was on Public Perception of The Activities Of Economic Financial Crime Commission (EFCC) In Curbing Corruption. Four objectives were raised which included: To examine why corruption and corrupt practices are endemic issues in Ikeja area of Lagos state, to investigate how efficient and effective is the EFCC in the quest to curb corruption and corrupt practices in Lagos State, to highlight some of the challenges of the EFCC in curbing corruption and corrupt practices in Ikeja area and Lagos State as a whole. and to assess the various State government efforts made in assisting the EFCC officials in carrying out their official tasks/duties of combating crime in Lagos State. In line with these objectives, two research hypotheses were formulated and two null hypotheses were posited. The total population for the study is 200 staff of EFCC, Sokoto state. The researcher used questionnaires as the instrument for the data collection. Descriptive Survey research design was adopted for this study. A total of 133 respondents made of detective inspectors, detective assistants, senior staff and junior staff were used for the study. The data collected were presented in tables and analyzed using simple percentages and frequencies
Conclusion
The political system and the culture of the Nigeria society made the EFCC more prone to failure. Some of the factors that made up the culture of the Nigerian society include a Great inequality in distribution of wealth, political office as the primary means of gaining access to wealth and conflict between changing moral codes, the absence of a strong sense of national community. These factors contributed to the weakness of social and governmental enforcement mechanisms which EFCC is one of them. The factor mentioned above make up the character of the Nigeria state and has made it difficult for EFCC to succeed in combating corruption in Nigeria.
Recommendation
For Nigerians to truly embark on the exercise aimed at eradicating corruption, the belief system of the society has to be changed. The people must be reconnected to know that political office carries responsibilities assigned to the holder to perform their duties with accountability and responsibility to the people and not to be seen as a primary means of gaining access to wealth. The government should provide employment to the people in order to discourage the situation in which people engage in sharp practices to make ends meet. To make EFCC strong, the commission must be empowered to go after anybody that is perceived to be engaged in corruption and sharp practices. This is to ensure that there are no sacred cows in the fight against corruption in Nigeria. There must be absolute transparency, which implies that publication of all the financial dealings of government at every level. There should be a made law of the land that every allocation made by the level of government, ministry and department must be published so that public will know how the government ran. Finally, effective and applicable laws must be put in place. The laws should also ensure that every citizen is treated on equal basis and allowed every citizen the privileges that they deserve as citizens of Nigeria. No government regime should use the EFCC as a window of dressing, which the Obasanjo administration has been doing with EFCC. In addition, no government should use the EFCC to cover their corrupt and other fraudulent practices.
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