Nigeria’s Economic and Financial Crimes Commission

The Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC) of Nigeria has been instrumental in charging and prosecuting senior political leaders and businessmen with political links, as well as in recovering and repatriating significant stolen resources for the Nigerian state. Yet it is also subject to frequent political interference, which reduces its effectiveness and means that it is often seen as an arm of the incumbent government, without an independent mandate.

In this project we analysed the political processes that influence the workings of the EFCC and identified feasible ways of insulating it for policy consideration. We then studied the evolution of the EFCC, from an organisation focusing on advance fee fraud to one targeting high profile political corruption (usually at the behest of the ruling party), and recently to a debt collector for large private sector actors. What does this mean for the EFCC in terms of its role as an anti-corruption law enforcement agency?

The project used a combination of jurisprudence and political economy analysis, alongside focus groups with lawyers.

SOAS-ACE is currently undertaking research in Bangladesh and Nigeria, including in the education, health and power sectors, as well as on successful collective action that overthrew a corrupt autocracy. Moving beyond pure research, we are also monitoring the implementation of anti-corruption strategies our research has recommended, such as a strategy to reduce pharmaceutical companies’ overpricing of medicines.

Our partners on this research were: Emilia Oneyma (SOAS University of London), Idayat Hassan (CDD West Africa), Habeeb Oredola (Habeeb Oredola Barristers and Solicitors) and Simeon Obidairo.