Nigeria: fighting the good fight

Anti-corruption activity in Nigeria has an uncertain future.

On Wednesday, Nuhu Ribadu, the chairman of the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC), will be replaced by his deputy, Ibrahim Lamorde. Ribadu's exit has provoked worries about loss of momentum in the war against corruption. Under his leadership, the EFCC emerged as the most visible and effective weapon against high-level corruption in Nigeria's history. 

It claimed its largest scalp in 2005, when it prosecuted the former national police chief, Tafa Balogun, after its investigations forced his resignation.  And since the April 2007 elections, when most of the 36 state governors stepped down and thus lost their immunity from prosecution, the EFCC has aggressively investigated dozens of former governors, and as of this month, has brought charges against eight of them.

However, Ribadu's agency has also been controversial -- both within the ruling elite and with its opponents.  The EFCC was regularly accused of being a tool for President former President Olusegun Obasanjo to sideline his opponents, and despite high profile prosecutions such as Balogun's, there was a strong perception that the president's allies were off-limits.  During the run-up to the 2007 elections, Ribadu allowed the EFCC to be politicised, when its investigations were used as the criteria by which electoral authorities disqualified primary candidates.  Election tribunals and court challenges by some of these candidates have since led to reversals of gubernatorial and National Assembly election results, which embarrassed the EFCC.

Nevertheless, its post-poll prosecutions have targeted some powerful ruling-party insiders -- including former governors James Ibori and Lucky Igbinedion, both seen as key supporters of President Umaru Yar'Adua's election campaign.  After months of wrangling with the attorney-general over its independent power to prosecute, the decision to send Ribadu on a one-year training course comes at a sensitive time for the EFCC.  While Lamorde is seen as a competent successor, the credibility of Nigeria's anti-corruption agenda will rely on his ability to resist pressure for the Commission to be side-lined -- as was Ribadu.