The Public Perception of the Activities of Economic Financial Crime Commission (EFCC) in Curbing Corruption in Nigeria
CHAPTER ONE
Objectives of the study
The main objective of this study is to examine the public perception of the activities of economic financial crime commission (EFCC) in curbing corruption in Nigeria. Given below are the specific objectives of the study:
- The major objective of the study is to critically assess the viability of economic and financial crimes commission in combating corruption in Nigeria.
- To determine the extent to which the economic and financial crimes commission reduced the rate of corruption in Nigeria.
- To measure the extent at which corruption affect the commission while carrying out its statutory role.
CHAPTER TWO
LITERATURE REVIEW AND THEORETICAL FRAMEWORK
Introduction
This chapter is all about literature review and the theoretical framework. It considers the concepts of corruption as explained by various authorities or scholars. It reviews the concept of corruption in Nigeria and goes ahead to look at the perceived causes, effects and various forms of corruption in Nigeria as provided by the economic and financial crimes commission. The research also employed the theoretical for the study using observational learning theory to analyze the work for achieving the most needed result of combating corruption in Nigeria.
Literature Review
Corruption has remained the key obstacle to our national development. For how else can one begin to explain the fact that our infrastructure, especially our roads and other transportation networks, our educational institutions and our hospitals, among others have not benefited more appreciably from the large revenue that this country has earned from its export of crude oil.
If the truth must be told, corruption now afflicts virtually all parts of the Nigerian society. It has eaten deep into our value system and is now even threatening to spread to our culture. Then, if this is the case, what do we understand corruption to mean?
What is Corruption?
Just like any other social issues, corruption has bewildering definitions, depending on how one perceives it. This means that there is no single comprehensive and universally acceptable definition of corruption as a concept. Scholars and practitioners advanced different definitions of the concepts.
Osoba (2000:472) sees corruption as “any form of anti social behaviour by an individual or social group which confers unjust or fraudulent benefit on its perpetrator and is inconsistent with the established legal norms and prescribed moral ethics of the land. The consequence of such anti-social behaviour could lead to the government not being able to effectively and efficiently discharge its constitutional functions, like meeting the basic needs of the masses”.
Idris (2007:72:78) espouses the view of Otite (1986) who defines corruption as “the perversion of integrity or state of affairs through bribery, favours or moral depravity, when at least two parties have interested to change the structure or process of society or the behaviour of functionaries in order to provide dishonest, unfaithful or defiled situation then corruption has taken place”. It therefore, involves the injection of additional but improper transactions aimed at changing the normal course of events and altering judgments and positions of events.
CHAPTER THREE
AN OVERVIEW OF UNEMPLOYMENT IN ABIA STATE, NIGERIA
Introduction
The chapter presents the overview of unemployment in Abia state, Nigeria. There seems to be a consensus on the definition of unemployment. The International Labour Organization (ILO) defines the unemployed as numbers of the economically active population who are without work but available for and seeking work, including people who have lost their jobs and those who have voluntarily left work (World Bank, 1998:63). Although there seems to be convergence on this concept, its applications have been bedeviled with series of problems across countries. First, most published unemployment rates are recorded open unemployment. People’s attitude on this varies from country to country. While this may be high in developed countries and where government is committed to resolving unemployment problems, it is likely to be very low in countries with the opposite attributes.
Okigbo (1991) also points out the problem arising from the concept of labour force. In most countries, particularly Nigeria, people below the age of 15 years and those above the age of 55, who are actively engaged in economic activities are usually excluded from labour statistical surveys. All these factors have the tendency to result in underestimation of unemployment thereby making international comparison very difficult. Factors such as the preponderance of full housewives (but who are willing to be engaged in paid job) and unpaid family workers also contribute significantly to the underestimation of unemployment.
Trends of unemployment in Nigeria
The Nigerian economy has experienced several and external shocks that have resulted in severe distortions and caused structural changes. The resultant effect had been fluctuations in major macroeconomic aggregates such as output, inflation, balance of payments, consumption, investment, and unemployment rate. What poses as the major concern to policy makers is the upward trend in the unemployment rate while other macroeconomic variables like real GDP growth and balance of payments have shown significant improvement.
CHAPTER FOUR
PRESENTATION, ANALYSIS AND INTERPRETATION OF DATA
Introduction
This chapter is concerned about the presentation and analysis of data gathered in the course of this research. For clarity, easy understanding and simplicity, the presentation and analysis of the surveyed data are broken down into personal data respondent and appraisal of respondents on it effectiveness.
Out of the one hundred and twenty (120) questionnaire distributed to both the EFCC staff and members of the general public, one hundred and seven (107) were dully filled and returned constituting 89% of the total number of questionnaire administered. Thirteen (13) of the total questionnaire administered were not returned, amounting to 11%. The analysis of data was therefore based on the retrieved of 107 questionnaire.
CHAPTER FIVE
SUMMARY, CONCLUSION AND RECOMMENDATIONS
Introduction
It has been an interesting, though challenging to conduct a research on the assessment of the viability of EFCC in combating corruption in Nigeria, Implication for improvement. This last chapter then summarizes the major finding of the research as well as recommendations on how to effectively strengthen the commission in order to perform more efficiently and given herein to precede the conclusion.
Summary
This research work is aim at examining the public perception of the activities of economic financial crime commission (EFCC) in curbing corruption in Nigeria. The research is divided into five chapters, chapter one dealt with introduction, background of the study, statement of research problems political interference, poor administration and findings, the objective of the study which is to look at the viability of economic and financial crimes commission in combating corruption in Nigeria and its implications for improvement. Also the factors that bring about corruption in Nigeria and solution through which EFCC activities can be enhanced. The chapter also dealt with hypothesis, significance and other important part of the study which emphasizes the possibilities and capabilities of the research in future researches.
In the chapter two, the study reviewed the concept of corruption by different scholar observed and overview of economic and financial crimes commission. It can be also put forward that the use of some of the human behavior theories can be immensely important to the issue of corruption in Nigeria.
In chapter three the research focused on the method of collecting the various data for the purpose of qualifying the validity of research. It is through the use of sample size, population of the study that we know the number of workers and general public and the samples that we used in distributing our questionnaires. Also the sampling procedure and instrument that we used for the collection of data are included in this study.
Chapter four of this study is the data presentation and analysis. In this chapter, the questionnaires collected in the field were analysed using sample percentage. Also the hypothesis put forward guide us in our research were tested and the results discussed.
Chapter five is the summary, conclusion and recommendations of the result discussed.
Conclusion
From the findings of the study, it can be concluded that though the activities of the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC) have significantly reduced the rate of corruption in Nigeria, it is ineffective on its combat against corruption and the punishments that exist for the perpetrators are inadequate to serve as a deterrent to those wishing to engage in the acts. Hence, the commission need to be reformed to enhance their operational and financial independence.
Recommendations
Based on the findings reported on this research, the following suggestions were offered as recommendations.
- It is imperative that more prosecution powers be granted to the commission so that it will be independent and not to be use for witch-hunting political opponents.
- The punishment for the perpetrators of corrupt practices should be commensurate with the degree of the offences committed, to serve as a deterrent to those wishing to engage in the acts.
- The challenge of the commission is inadequate funding of the commission, the government to legislate a law that would enable such commissions to source their funds directly from the Federation Accounts.
- The Nigeria judicial process/system should be restricted in such a way as to allow for a speedy but impartial administration of justice as regards criminal and corrupt cases.
- The crackdown on political office holder’s especially state governors by EFCC should be extended to other levels of government. Not only that, the EFCC’s search light should equally be beamed on top civil servants who aids the chief executives in looting public funds.
- The government must fine tune its machinery with the view of looking into those factors and the leadership must demonstrate the willingness to track and punish corrupt officials and citizens should help in providing the commission with useful information.
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