EFCC chair Ola Olukoyede says Nigeria’s anti-corruption fight focused on “enforcement” will never work, warning that prosecuting and jailing corrupt people will only worsen the situation.

Nigeria, Africa’s most populous nation, is regarded as one of the most corrupt countries in the world.

Mr Olukoyede, who hosted the management team of the National Orientation Agency, NOA, led by its director-general, Lanre Issa Onilu, at EFCC corporate headquarters in Jabi, Abuja, on Wednesday, said the anti-graft agency under his watch is interested in financial crimes prevention because enforcement has never worked in the past 20 years.

“Upon my assumption of office, I made it known to Nigerians that one of the key areas that we will pursue seriously and vigorously is the area of prevention. Everything in the anti-corruption fight is not about enforcement.

“There are policy issues that are involved. It is not all about throwing bombs and chasing people with armoured vehicles and machine guns. No, it has never worked, and it will never work. We have been on the path of enforcement for 20 years now. Would anyone tell me that corruption is abating?” Mr Olukoyede said.

The EFCC boss added, “The more you do, the more progress you make in the area of recovery, in the area of prosecution and conviction of people, the deeper the problem becomes. As you are facing one, people are inventing new areas and getting smarter by the day.

“And so, we have come to realise that there is actually nothing fundamentally wrong with our people, but that our values have been bastardised over the years and also the system that we run, so I made it known to Nigerians and the entire world that we will pursue the issue of prevention very seriously.”

To achieve this, Mr Olukoyede said he had begun amplifying anti-corruption enlightenment campaigns and establishing institutional structures, noting that with the prevention, EFCC will no longer wait for money first to be stolen before it takes action.

The EFCC has earned the notoriety of raiding nightclubs and hotels, harassing guests in a clampdown on internet fraudster Yahoo boys.

Similarly, the EFCC had on several occasions raided bureaux de change across the country in a bid to halt the naira decline in the international market.