CHAPTER ONE
INTRODUCTION
1.1 Background of the study
Corruption is a social menace that has eaten deep into the fabric of the Nigerian polity. One of the greatest threats to economic and political development in Nigeria is corruption act. Therefore, the challenges of official corruption remains a major devastating issue facing Nigeria since the colonial period. That is why many countries Nigeria, inclusive have put in place different mechanisms for checkmating the spate of corruption. In her own case for example, the menace of corruption in Nigeria has been discussed at different levels, yet this ugly incidence keeps surviving in all facets of her endeavors. Since the return of the country to civil rule on May 29, 1999, the Nigerian government has taken a number of measures to address the problems of corruption and bad governance in the country. These measures include public service reform (monetization to reduce waste and reduction of over-bloated personnel, reform of public procurement); establishment of anti-corruption enforcement agencies (such as the Economic and Financial Crime Commission, other; and the ongoing Voluntary Asset and Income Declaration Scheme (VAIDS) which provides an opportunity for Nigerians with assets and income that undeclared to be declared. The manifestation of the crises is clear, the remedies much less so (Ogundiya, 2009). Corroborating the above assertion, former chairman of anti-graft agency (Economic Financial and Crimes Commission) Malam Nuhu Ribadu hinted that the top Nigerian officials have squandered or wasted almost $380 billion - $440 billion between 1960 and 1999 (Ribadu, 2009; Human Right Watch, 2010; Mohammed, 2013). Furthermore, Nigeria lost $4 billion - $8 billion due to corruption each year from 1999-2007 (Human Right Watch, 2010). However, the figure has been increasing from 2007-2015. Accordingly, the country was rated as the 136 out of 175 nations within the context of the Corruption Perceptions Index reported by Transparency International in 2015. Corruption continues to occur despite anti-graft measures taken by the new civilian administration of President Muhammed Buhari which has led to the reduction or debasement of corrupt tendencies. Several measures have been taken by each selective governments in regime ranging from the first republic, second republic and the military regimes towards advocating various strategies, programs and measures against corruption. Indeed, each administration is affected by a certain degree of corruption and also possesses a number of strategies for combating it. In the fourth republic, the civilian administration has introduced anti-graft institutions (Economic Financial and Crimes Commission (EFCC); Independent Corrupt Practices and Other Related Offences Commission and Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (ICPC); and their components such as, Nigeria Extractive Industries Transparency Initiatives (NEITI), Bureau of Public Procurement (BPP) and Technical Unit on Governance and Anti-corruption Reforms (TUGAR). In fact, these institutions were established in order to strengthen public accountability, probity, transparency and to combat the gravity of corruption in both public service and private sector management (Waziri, 2010; Enweremadu, 2012; Justine & Okoye, 2014). Above all, these institutions continues to face some critical challenges in combating corrupt practices in Nigeria. These agencies suffer some bottlenecks such as absence of autonomy, paucity of funds, unequal treatment, institutional factors, lack of judicial power, inadequate database, and lack of political will towards combating the menace of corruption (Waziri, 2010). These challenges have hindered the attainment of goals of the anti-corruption crusade from bringing future development and prospects to the Nigerian democratic system. This work is therefore delineated to the challenges of official corruption by the EFCC in Nigeria, under the Buhari administration from 2015-2019.