Now, a new dawn of corruption fight in Nigeria, but can Farida match up her words with actions?
A lady of Timber! Farida Waziri championing a true New Nigeria
The current fight against corruption in Nigeria seems to be attaining a more credible level if the words of the anti-graft Agency Chairman, Farida Waziri are anything to go by.
She has decided to bite rather than bark in a new effort to confront corrupt practices involving Nigerians and their foreign collaborators.
Waziri has threatened to pursue with vigour foreign nationals in Nigeria who encourage bribery and corruption and on whose back many Nigerians ride to carry out their destructive activities against the nation.
It is a step that has drawn accolade across the world as the lady of courage determines to sanitize Nigeria of corruption and usher in an new era of probity and accountability, especially within the government establishments.
Farida on Tuesday accused some foreign companies of encouraging corruption by offering bribes to secure contracts in the country.
In an official statement, the anti graft Agency head said:” Both the givers and receivers are guilty and must answer charges,”
The Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC) quoted Farida Waziri as promising a new era of confrontation against foreigners who encourage corrupt practices in the country.
The EFCC boss also said that a team has been set up to probe all illegally-acquired assets by all sections of Nigeria public office holders, warning that such assets would be seized if owners could not explain how they come about them.
“We promise they will forfeit them to government”, she said in the statement.
Waziri’s comments came as her agency began to quiz several former Nigerian ministers and other officials suspected of taking bribes from the German industrial conglomerate Siemens. Former communications minister Mohammed Haliru Bello was questioned on Monday by EFCC agents.
Two other former communications ministers, Tajudeen Olanrewaju and Cornelius Adebayo, were also due to meet with investigators soon, an EFCC spokesman said. Ten other former government officials were due for questioning this week and the EFCC also plans to quiz former officials from the state power firm PHCN and telecommunication company NITEL .
PHCN has specially been fingered as a haven of corruption, back-hander and unofficial contractors for heavy duty power generators foreign importers.
Siemens agreed in 2008 to pay US and German authorities nearly one billion euros in fines to settle charges related to the bribery scandal, with the company acknowledging that up to 1.3 billion euros may have been used illegally to win foreign contracts across the globe.
The German company paid 10 million euros in bribes to Nigerian officials, including communications ministers, between 2001 and 2004, according to court documents reported by the Wall Street Journal Europe.
In December 2007, Nigeria cancelled a million-dollar power contract with Siemens and banned it from bidding for other contracts until the end of the graft probe.
Nigeria has also sought help from the United States to prosecute officials indicted in a multi-million dollar bribery scandal involving US giant Halliburton and three former heads of state.
It is believed that with current revelations and EFCC determination to hold the bull by the horn without consideration for highly placed individuals, Nigeria may have struck it lucky with a new direction for development and unabated progress.
“The bane of our progress has been corruption and if Farida Waziri goes by her words, she would be carving a new cliché for herself as an heroine who put Nigeria on the new stairs of progressive altitude”, a legal practitioner said in London on Tuesday.
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