Former Attorney-General of the Federation (AGF), Kanu Agabi, (SAN) has disclosed that the fear of the EFCC, the ICPC, the SSS, the FIRS, the NFIU and the Police has caused many Nigerians to horde their monies at home, instead of taking those monies to the banks.
Agabi also said, the fear has now become a source of distress to the nations economy, noting that, The cure is turning out to be worse than the disease.
Speaking at the maiden ICPC Conference with State Attorneys General on Strengthening ICPCs Capacity for Corruption Prevention, yesterday, the renowned legal Icon declared that, The time has come when we must encourage Nigerians who have monies abroad to bring such monies back home and invest here, even unconditionally.
The former AGF, who stated this at Abuja, while speaking on the theme: Building A Unified Front Against Corruption In Nigeria, warned that We have to be careful to ensure, as president Obasanjo feared, that the cure does not turn out to be worse than the disease. We have several institutions fighting corruption today, like the ICPC.
These institutions have done very well indeed and are entitled to be commended. If we appear to be losing the fight against corruption, the fault is not theirs. We blame them only because we are not aware of the successes that they have achieved and are still achieving the huge billions that they recover daily, the convictions that they obtain, the fear that they instill in potential criminals.
However, he noted that, It is this fear that is now becoming a source of distress to the nation. The cure is turning out to be worse than the disease. Fear of the EFCC, the ICPC, the SSS, the FIRS, the NFIU and the Police has caused many Nigerians to avoid the banks. It has caused some wealthy people to keep their moneys at home; to convert their moneys into dollars and either store at home or bank abroad. Many make their investments abroad for fear of these institutions.
The monies that we are recovering as proceeds of crime represent a tiny little fraction of the monies that Nigerians have deposited abroad. If these monies are recovered or recalled and invested in education or power or the provision of infrastructures or directed at making the nation self-reliant, it will not be long before the nation is well on the way to ridding itself of corruption.
Speaking further, he said, A time will never come when the nation will legitimize corruption. Let the nation be ever so corrupt, yet, corruption shall remain a crime. While it is with us, and while we seem helpless in the face of it, we must find a way of employing it to move forward. A wise nation, he said must know how to employ corruption to rid itself of corruption.
Agabi also emphasised that, Corruption cannot be eliminated overnight. It will take time. We can learn a lesson from those students of ethics who killed a frog by heating the water gently so that the temperature of the water changed imperceptibly. The frog remained in the water until it reached boiling point and died.
We blame our condition on the economy. We blame it on our politics. We blame it on the social system. Some blame it on the judiciary. I dare say that no economic theories, no political theories, no legal theories are going to save the nation until we admit that we are all implicated in the downfall of the nation and change our ways”.
The nation cannot remain the enemy of God and hope that either the EFCC or the ICPC or the Police or the judiciary will solve her problems. We must, like the prodigal son, arise and return to our Father, he stressed.
On the call for the establishment of special courts to try criminal cases, the former AGF stated that we must take steps to ensure that crime is minimised.
Agabi further urged judges to resist the pressure being put on them by the political class.
