A chieftain of the All Progressives Congress (APC), Kassim Afegbua, has criticized the unrealistic expectations placed on anti-corruption officials in Nigeria, especially when they are poorly paid, stating that no serious fight against corruption can succeed under such conditions.
Speaking passionately, He said the system needs a total overhaul, beginning with transparency and adequate compensation. “I told somebody, give me EFCC to run. I will run it differently. And what will I do different? I will make my salary a public declared figure. Mr. President, pay me 50 million naira per month because that will take care of my immediate needs and that of my family.”
Afegbua continued, “But you cannot be paying me 1.5 million naira per month and you expect me to perform magic.”
Afegbua argued that the country’s anti-corruption structure is fundamentally flawed, beginning with how officials are recruited and remunerated. He said, “You take a man who has been looking for a job for the last eight years, you suddenly recruit him to be an anti-corruption cadet in EFCC, you take him through all the training and you want him to sit down with poor salary to be prosecuting a man who has been accused of stealing 100 billion. Are you making sense?”
He noted that such officers are easily compromised when approached with huge bribes. “The EFCC officer confronts the man, and he says somebody should give you $100,000. This is a man whose salary in the next 20 years he will not get $100,000. What do you expect him to do?”
Afegbua called for cost-effective investigations, pointing out the absurdity in spending more than is stolen to recover looted funds. “A man who stole 10 million naira, you can’t be using 15 million naira to chase him.
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