EFCC may cream off chunkiest of Buhari’s anti-graft war chest

For the nine anti-corruption agencies in Nigeria to up their game this year, the federal government is ready to fork out N27.7 billion, which is 3.1 percent higher than what they got in 2015.

The Economic and Financial Crime Commission will get the biggest cut, N11.2 billion (compared to the N10.4 billion allotted in 2015), followed by the Independent Corrupt Practices and Other Related Offences Commission’s N4.6 billion, the Office of the Auditor-General’s N2.9 billion, the Public Complaint Commission’s N2 billion, the Bureau of Public Procurement’s N1.4 billion, and the Nigeria Extractive Industries Transparency Initiative’s N1.4 billion.

Others include: the Fiscal Responsibility Commission, N494 million, which is N157million higher than its N336.8 million allocation last year; the Code of Conduct Bureau and the Code of Conduct Tribunal will get N2.2 billion and N784.3 million respectively.

The least allocation to the anti-graft war in the 2016 budget is the N494 million for the FRC.

Apart from the EFCC that ups its ante in spite of Nigeria’s dwindling oil fortunes, most of the agencies had their proposals slashed considerably because of the $38 per barrel benchmark for the N6.08 trillion budget proposed for 2016.

And the large vote to the most vibrant of the anti-graft agencies is understandable, especially with President Muhammadu Buhari’s commitment to recover looted monies in the last administration.

The president claimed last year his administration traced over $150 billion of Nigeria’s monies squirrelled abroad in the last six years.

“On these initiatives, and the many more to come, we shall not be deterred. We will pursue the recovery of everything that belongs to the people of Nigeria. No matter where it is hidden. No matter how long it will take,” Buhari said while presenting the 2016 budget to the National Assembly.

According to him, his administration has been paring down the cost of running Nigeria’s federal government many describe as top-heavy.