A coalition of civil society organisations, Initiative for Leadership and Economic Watch in Nigeria, has expressed willingness and determination to team up with the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC) on monitoring of government budget to ensure its optimal performance.
The group, comprising scores of CSOs, made the disclosure in Abuja on Thursday, February 6, 2025, when Ambassador Splendor Agbonkpolor led leaders of the different CSOs on a courtesy visit to the Executive Chairman of EFCC, Mr. Ola Olukoyede, at the Commission’s corporate headquarters in Abuja.
The CSO leaders disclosed that they came together to operate as a committee, basically to focus on budget monitoring and implementation in the country. “The budget is our major concern. Our mandate is to monitor budget implementation; to assess budget effectiveness, identify budget gaps, advocate for reforms, promote transparency, provide evidence-based reports, collaborate with stakeholders, and support capacity building,” Agbonkpolor said according to a statement posted on EFCC’s X handle on Friday.
According to Agbonkpolor, the CSOs Committee decided to team up with the EFCC “because we believe that the fight against corruption is not a one-man show. It’s not one a one-agency business. It’s not a sole business of the EFCC. The EFCC needs Nigerians to assist it in terms of reportage and information. The committee believes that corruption starts with procurement. If corruption is tackled from the point of procurement down to the point of implementation, at the end of the day, the money that will be stolen from the budget will be minimized.
“In our work, over time, we discovered that despite the huge money received by contractors for projects, whenever we get to the site, nothing would be there. If we go on-site and we see that a project that was supposed to be on ground is not on ground, we will come to the EFCC and say look at this project, look at the amount of money that’s been paid, but there’s nothing ground. So it makes the work easier for the EFCC to just go there and investigate.”
According to him, “The need for us to come together as a team, to be more formidable, to be able to render that independent service to enhance the work of EFCC is very important. It’s the reason why we put ourselves together and said, let’s come as a committee; let’s see how we can begin to assist the government in this direction. And that’s why we ran to the EFCC through our organizations on behalf of the committee so that we can have this interface and understanding and more collaboration.”
Responding, EFCC chairman Olukoyede, who thanked members of the delegation for showing “deep interest in seeing that Nigeria moves forward,” noted that “we can only achieve that by collaboration. I’ve been saying it and I’ll continue to say it fighting corruption is not the work of law enforcement or anti-corruption agencies alone and that’s why I am so much in love with your Initiative. I can guarantee you all our support. When I see civil society with us, it gives me confidence that we will succeed.”
Speaking further, he said, “We are all victims of this crime that we are talking about. So we are ready to work with you. Budget implementation and monitoring are key. We will ensure that our collaboration with you is strong.”
