Nigeria’s war against corruption: what are laws without effective implementation and enforcement? The real solutions to combating corruption in Nigeria

For many years since colonial and post-colonial rule, Nigeria has waged war against corruption in the hope of eradicating corruption, bribery, fraud and unruliness and reinstating discipline, accountability, and transparency. To combat corruption, many administrations have made efforts to enact anti-corruption laws and measures. Such measures include the Independent Corrupt Practices and Other Related Offences Commission (ICPC) Act that focuses on investigating and prosecuting corrupt practices in the public sector, and the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC) Act to deal with financial crimes such as money laundering, advance fee fraud and other related offences. These anti-corruption laws have led to the creation of various Law Enforcement Authorities (LEAs) and Anti-Corruption Agencies (ACAs) in Nigeria – mostly named after their enabling Acts – such as the EFCC, ICPC and CCB (Code of Conduct Bureau and Tribunals). The expectation was that such measures would lead to some significant reduction in the incidence of corruption in the country. However, this is not the case. The issue is that regardless of the growing number of new legislations, LEAs and ACAs established to wage war against corruption by every new regime, the nation has failed to implement and enforce existing anti-corruption laws, which suggests the enforcement of new legislation would be no different. Public officials continue to indulge in corrupt practices without being subject to investigation or prosecution. This research takes an interdisciplinary approach to how the Legislature, Supreme Audit Institution (SAI), Anti-Corruption Agencies (ACAs) and Law Enforcement Agencies (LEAs) can considerably curb corruption in the public sector in Nigeria. Successful efforts for combating corruption in Nigeria depend on the implementation and enforcement of anti-corruption laws and measures, ensuring that corrupt practices are prevented, and corrupt public officials are investigated and prosecuted. Essentially, this work argues that Nigeria has adequate legislation to combat corruption, or at the least considerably reduce corrupt practices, and the enactment of new legislation is not readily the solution to combating political corruption. Though there are significant challenges to implementing and enforcing anti-corruption laws, this research finds that effective prevention, investigation, and prosecution of corruption have immense potential to contribute towards a successful fight against corruption by promoting integrity, transparency, accountability, and good governance. In consideration, this work proposes that SAIs, ACAs and LEAs are provided with constitutionally entrenched clear mandates that protect their functions, avoid duplication of roles and guarantee their independence, funding and enforcement powers to penetrate the protective cocoon of top-level public officials. The work concludes that there is a need for Nigeria to consolidate anti-corruption efforts, provide skilled education and training to individuals and institutions responsible for curbing corruption as well as establish specialised anti-corruption prosecutors to investigate and prosecute corruption offences of ‘special importance’, that is, corruption offences committed by public officials in the performance of their duties.