NLC Pledges Support for EFCC’s Anti-Corruption Fight

The Nigeria Labour Congress (NLC) has pledged its support for the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC) in the fight against corruption and illicit financial flows in Nigeria.

The pledge was made on Thursday, August 13, when an NLC delegation led by its General Secretary, Akhator Joel Odigie, paid a courtesy visit to the EFCC Executive Chairman in Abuja.

Odigie, who is also the General Secretary of the International Trade Union Confederation-Africa (ITUC-Africa), said the visit was part of a wider continental campaign against illicit financial flows.

“Our coming today, first, is a way of solidarity. To say we are with you in this fight. Let us fight together,” Odigie said, stressing that the anti-corruption campaign was in the interest of Nigerian workers and the wider population.

He said the campaign was based on findings of the African Union-commissioned Mbeki Panel report, which estimated that about $60 billion left Africa annually as of 2005 through tax avoidance, tax evasion and other illicit financial practices.

Odigie also called for stronger whistleblowing mechanisms to enable workers who witness corruption to report such cases safely and receive adequate protection.

He linked the fight against corruption to the demand for better wages and social protection, arguing that funds lost through corruption and illicit financial flows could otherwise support workers’ welfare.

The NLC also called for the revival of its previous collaboration with the EFCC and suggested strengthening the Commission’s powers, including possible amendments to its enabling law to ensure offenders can be investigated and prosecuted regardless of their positions.

Responding on behalf of the EFCC Chairman, Ola Olukoyede, the Commission’s Director of Public Affairs, Commander CE Wilson Uwujaren, welcomed the NLC’s support and said the EFCC could not win the anti-corruption battle alone.

“The Commission welcomes collaboration from every organisation, civil society, faith-based organisations, all of them,” Uwujaren said.

He urged the NLC to help sensitise workers on the effects of corruption and encourage them to use the Commission’s whistleblowing channels.

Uwujaren noted that public interest in the EFCC’s whistleblowing policy, introduced around 2016, had declined in recent years due to insufficient civil society engagement.