When Nations Break Their Reformers: Why EFCC Cannot Carry Nigeria’s Burden Alone — And Why Power Must Fear God -By Prof. John Egbeazien Oshodi

A Dangerous Season: Reformers Under Pressure, Not Criminals

Nigeria is entering a deeply troubling season in its anti-corruption struggle — not because criminals have suddenly become stronger, but because reformers are becoming increasingly isolated. We have reached a moment where those who try, even imperfectly, to confront corruption are more likely to be attacked than supported. History rarely treats such societies kindly. Political power may outmaneuver courts for a while, but it never escapes God, and it never escapes the judgment of time.

Corruption Has Evolved — It Now Fights Through Perception and Psychological Warfare

The Economic and Financial Crimes Commission, under Ola Olukoyede, now finds itself inside a battle far larger than prosecutions or courtroom appearances. The EFCC has publicly warned that politicians, interest groups, and carefully organized voices are coordinating efforts to portray the commission as partisan ahead of the 2027 elections. This is not merely messaging. It is strategy. Corruption in Nigeria has evolved beyond bribery and money laundering. It now fights psychologically — by destroying reputations, planting suspicion, intimidating investigators, and framing reformers as enemies before cases are even heard.

Why EFCC Is “Crying Out” — Normalized Corruption Is the Real Enemy

This is why the EFCC is “crying out.” It is not simply overwhelmed by files. It is reacting to something more dangerous: the normalization of corruption. Cases stall and return quietly. Proceedings drag for years. Technical victories are celebrated as innocence. Some suspects leave the courtroom to applause, as if legal process itself has become an inconvenience. In that environment, EFCC is not just confronting financial wrongdoing. It is confronting a national mindset that treats accountability as negotiable when power is involved.

Malami’s Properties and the Question of Public Office as Private Empire

The interim forfeiture order on 57 properties linked to former Attorney-General Abubakar Malami and his family illustrates the scale of the challenge. Hotels, academic institutions, religious centers, estates, hospitality facilities, factories — across several states. Whether Malami is guilty or not remains the court’s responsibility to determine. But symbolically, questions remain: how does public office in Nigeria continue to transform so easily into vast private empire? And who truly pays for that transformation?

Selective Courage, Selective Silence — The Yahaya Bello Dilemma

Then there is the case of former Kogi governor Yahaya Bello — a name that has become a symbol of selective courage and selective silence. While he is constitutionally presumed innocent, Nigerians watched him move comfortably in the highest political spaces and even secure appointments, despite active cases in court. At the same time, Olukoyede once publicly declared that he would resign if Bello’s case was not properly pursued. He was not grandstanding. He was signaling frustration — the frustration of someone trying to move a legal process forward while facing invisible resistance.

When Reformers Carry the Shame While the Accused Carry Applause

Imagine carrying the public anger, taking the criticism, doing the investigations — then seeing the same individual you are prosecuting photographed warmly beside national leadership. That is not simply institutional pressure. It is psychological wear. It quietly whispers to reformers: “Be careful. There are people you must never touch.” In moments like that, law becomes secondary to political calculation, and honest officers begin to wonder whether integrity still has value.

A Judge Speaks Out — And The Country Should Have Listened

Complicating matters further, the judiciary itself has started signaling distress. When Justice Emeka Nwite publicly warned that attempts were being made to improperly influence him in the Malami case, the nation should have paused. Judges rarely speak that way without reason. His statement was not courtroom theatrics — it was a sober indication that interference has become bold enough to walk up to the bench. EFCC’s lead prosecutor, Jibrin Samuel Okutepa (SAN), responded by calling for naming, shaming, and even arresting lawyers and litigants who attempt to “shop for judicial favour.” His position was direct: the courtroom cannot survive if it becomes a negotiation hall.

The Hidden Saboteurs Inside the System

It is here we must acknowledge an uncomfortable truth. The greatest enemies of justice are not always politicians. Sometimes they are the insiders: lawyers who whisper quietly to judges, registrars who bury files until momentum dies, court officers who trade adjournments like merchandise, and judges who drown cases under technicalities until truth suffocates. These individuals do not rant on television. They work quietly — and the damage they cause lasts decades.

An Overloaded EFCC Standing Alone

Under such conditions, EFCC is not only prosecuting alleged criminals. It is defending its credibility, shielding cooperative judges, battling organized media manipulation, responding to political pressure, and carrying public expectation — all at once. No single institution can carry such a burden without fracture. When reforms begin to cost too much politically, leadership often quietly distances itself while pretending support. Eventually, reformers become the problem — not corruption.

Public Anger Is Real — But The System Is Bigger Than One Man

Public frustration with the EFCC over perceived selective enforcement is understandable. Nigerians see some arrests carried out suddenly and forcefully, while other politically sensitive cases seem to move far more slowly. That anger is real, and it should not be dismissed.

But the truth is more complex. The chairman operates within layers of authority, political pressure, institutional limitation, and policy control that extend far beyond his personal desk. It is easy to blame one man. It is far more difficult to confront the structures that quietly determine which cases accelerate and which ones quietly stall.

And yet, despite all of this, EFCC under his leadership has still managed to push forward investigations that many believed would never see daylight — often at great institutional cost.

When the environment sends mixed messages — arrest one figure, celebrate another — institutions become disoriented. And confusion is where corruption survives longest.

Why My Concern About EFCC Runs Deep

For years, I have written about the EFCC — sometimes in support, sometimes in criticism — not to praise or condemn, but to help shape an institution Nigeria desperately needs to work honestly. My worry today is not centered on any individual. It is about what happens to a nation when integrity is discouraged and manipulation is quietly rewarded.

The Real Danger: A Collapse of Faith in Justice

What Nigeria must confront now is not simply whether EFCC wins or loses cases. The deeper danger is a collapse of faith in justice. When citizens conclude that corruption always eventually wins, something breaks internally. Courtrooms become theater. Laws become tools of convenience. Cynicism hardens. And nations governed by cynicism rarely recover easily.

Anti-Corruption Must Become National Duty — Not EFCC’s Lonely Assignment

This is why anti-corruption cannot remain an isolated fight carried by EFCC alone. It requires disciplined courts, ethical legal practice, political restraint, honest executive backing, and a media system unwilling to be rented. Without alignment, EFCC becomes both the attacker and the scapegoat — blamed when it acts, criticized when it hesitates, and abandoned when it needs support.

Beyond Law — The Spiritual Cost of Destroying Reformers

More importantly, this struggle is not simply legal. It is deeply moral — and spiritual. A country that repeatedly discards sincere reformers invites consequences beyond politics. The Bible, the Quran, and history say the same thing: when societies mock justice long enough, they eventually become ruled by injustice itself. When that day comes, nobody — including the powerful — is safe.

A Call to Leadership — And a Warning

This appeal is not written to defend any single individual or to condemn any particular leader. It is written to confront a dangerous national ritual: praising those who weaken accountability while isolating those who try to enforce it. When the Presidency, or any arm of government, receives distorted counsel about the motives or integrity of anti-corruption officers, the consequences do not fall only on those officers. They fall on the country itself.

Nigeria must learn to protect reform-minded officials — even when they are imperfect — rather than sacrificing them to political convenience. We must restrain impulses that send quiet signals of protection to those facing investigation. We must expose the lawyers, registrars, judges, and insiders who quietly sabotage justice while speaking the language of law. And leadership across institutions must stop performing anti-corruption in public while quietly undermining those appointed to carry it out.

Because one truth has never changed: no nation survives after repeatedly breaking the very people trying to heal it. When a country continuously mocks justice, justice eventually responds — not in headlines, but in weakened institutions, compromised governance, frightened investors, disillusioned citizens, and the wounded moral memory our children will inherit.

And there is now an additional reality we cannot ignore. When Senate President Godswill Akpabio said, “Trump is already on our neck,” he was acknowledging that global oversight is tightening. This is the worst possible moment for anyone to sabotage EFCC or derail serious investigations. The world is watching. Corruption cases no longer disappear quietly. And those who try to bury accountability today may discover that consequences now come from far beyond political circles — and far beyond Nigeria.

About the Author

Prof. John Egbeazien Oshodi is an American psychologist, an expert in policing and corrections, and an educator with expertise in forensic, legal, clinical, and cross-cultural psychology, including public ethical policy. A native of Uromi, Edo State, Nigeria, and son of a 37-year veteran of the Nigeria Police Force, he has long worked at the intersection of psychology, justice, and governance. In 2011, he helped introduce advanced forensic psychology to Nigeria through the National Universities Commission and Nasarawa State University, where he served as Associate Professor of Psychology.

He teaches in the Doctorate in Clinical and School Psychology at Nova Southeastern University; the Doctorate Clinical Psychology, BS Psychology, and BS Tempo Criminal Justice programs at Walden University; and lectures virtually in Management and Leadership Studies at Weldios University and ISCOM University. He is also the President and Chief Psychologist at the Oshodi Foundation, Center for Psychological and Forensic Services, United States.

Prof. Oshodi is a Black Republican in the United States but belongs to no political party in Nigeria—his work is guided solely by justice, good governance, democracy, and Africa’s development. He is the founder of Psychoafricalysis (Psychoafricalytic Psychology), a culturally grounded framework that integrates African sociocultural realities, historical awareness, and future-oriented identity. He has authored more than 500 articles, multiple books, and numerous peer-reviewed works on Africentric psychology, higher education reform, forensic and correctional psychology, African democracy, and decolonized models of clinical and community engagement.