New York, United States - Wednesday's sudden sack of Nigeria’s controversial anti-corruption chairman Farida Waziri will not fix the troubled agency she led, Human Rights Watch (HRW) said in a statement issued here late Thursday. HRW said the Nigerian government should rather carry out broad institutional reforms if the country is to make real progress against corruption. President Goodluck Jonathan dismissed Waziri, chairman of the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC), without giving any reasons.

But the local media reported she was fired for the agency's weakening fight against corruption and the petitions alleging corruption within the topmost echelon of the commission.

HRW said the commission’s record in fighting high-level corruption had been consistently disappointing under both Waziri and her well-regarded predecessor, Mr. Nuhu Ribadu.

It said partly due to the commission’s own failures, it had been largely unable to secure convictions against senior government officials charged with corruption.

As HRW showed in a recent report on the institution’s problems, broader institutional failures – such as executive interference and judiciary inefficiency – will need to be addressed if the commission is to improve its anti-corruption record.

“The EFCC’s mandate is to fight corruption that the political system actually rewards, and to accomplish that by working through institutions that are either broken or compromised,” said Daniel Bekele, Africa director at Human Rights Watch. “That’s an almost impossible job no matter who is in charge.”

The commission, established in 2003, is the only government institution that has publicly challenged the longtime impunity of Nigeria’s ruling elite. It has arraigned 35 nationally prominent political figures on corruption charges, including 19 former state governors.

But many of those cases have made little progress in the courts, and not a single politician is currently serving prison time for any of these alleged crimes. The commission has secured four convictions of senior political officials since 2003, but they have faced relatively little or no prison time.

HRW said the Jonathan administration should present legislative amendments granting tenure security to the commission chairman, adding that the institution can never be truly independent if the president can dismiss its chairman at will.

It said the government should also bolster Nigeria’s other key anti-corruption institutions, the Independent Corrupt Practices and Other Related Offences Commission and the Code of Conduct Bureau.

Waziri was appointed in 2008 in controversial circumstances after Ribadu was forced from office in apparent reprisal for his attempted prosecution of a powerful former governor, James Ibori.

Waziri has been widely criticized as ineffective and politically beholden, but in the months leading up to her sudden ouster she initiated a flurry of prosecutions against senior political figures.

In October, the commission arraigned four former state governors and a serving senator on corruption charges, and in June the agency filed corruption charges against the former speaker and deputy speaker of the House of Representatives – all of them members of the ruling People’s Democratic Party.

During Waziri’s three-and-a-half years in office, the agency arraigned 21 senior political figures on corruption charges but only secured two convictions in these cases. Her four-year term in office was due to expire in May 2012. 

A former head of operations of the EFCC, Ibrahim Lamorde, has been appointed acting chair of the commission.

Pana 25/11/2011