The recent move by the Nigerian Senate to amend some sections of the Acts setting up the two anti-graft bodies, the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC) and Independent Corrupt Practices and Other Related Offences Commission (ICPC), with a view to expunging the various sections that circumscribe their independence and hamper their effective operations, is most welcome and would certainly receive the support of many Nigerians who have remained troubled by the havoc corruption has continued to wreak on our public institutions. It is widely acknowledged that corruption has remained the most unrelenting enemy of Nigeria's progress and development, and the lingering inability of the existing anti-corruption bodies to successfully contain it, because of limitations imposed on them by perceived weaknesses in their enabling laws, has always filled countless Nigerians with great frustration.
If, therefore, the present exercise at the Senate will succeed in removing those frustrating constraints and boost the anti-corruption war, Nigerians would certainly celebrate it as a landmark achievement. Already, the Senate Committee on Drugs, Narcotics and Anti-Corruption has held a public hearing to receive inputs from members of the public to ensure that the proposed amendments reflect the true feelings of Nigerians on the issue.
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