Wednesday, October 21, 2026

Looters case being swept under carpet in Buhari’s ‘ineffective’ anti-corruption fight: Jega

The former INEC chair said corrupt Nigerians threatened by prosecution by the EFCC move into the APC and then nothing is heard about their case.

• December 25, 2021
Professor Attahiru Jega
Professor Attahiru Jega

Former chairman of the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC), Attahiru Jega, has criticised the anti-corruption fight of President Muhammadu Buhari regime as “ineffective,” adding that looters who join Mr Buhari’s All Progressives Congress (APC) party have their cases swept under the carpet.

“The so-called fight against corruption is really ineffective,” Mr Jega said in an interview with Toyin Falola. “Those who have stolen public funds and who are threatened by the EFCC for prosecution, once they move into the APC (the ruling party), then you don’t hear anything about their prosecution,” he said.

The former INEC boss said “The only way to address these issues, in my view, is to have a revolutionary transformation of society and improve the context of governance within the framework in which our governance system is predicated.”

Speaking on the two major political parties, the APC and Peoples Democratic Party (PDP), Mr Jega said both parties should be held “responsible in the last twenty years for the deepening crisis of governance and leadership in our country.”

He said: “I think PDP and APC are almost irredeemable. They are marriages of convenience by the politically active elite, majority of whom focus on the actualisation of self-serving objectives in elective positions.

“Many of them see participation in elections as investment; some of them sold house, took bank loans to get elected into office.

“They engage in elections by hook or crook. Once they get into the governance process, obviously they do their best to recoup their investments,” Mr Jega said.

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