The chairman of the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC), Abdulrasheed Bawa, on Wednesday, briefed President Bola Tinubu at the Presidential Villa in Abuja on the activities of his commission.
The meeting which was the first official encounter between them afforded Mr Bawa an opportunity to brief the new president “on the fight against corruption,” EFCC’s spokesperson, Wilson Uwujaren, said in a statement on Wednesday.
“The meeting, which was the EFCC chairman’s first official engagement with President Tinubu since he assumed office, afforded the anti-graft czar the opportunity to brief the president on the state of the fight against corruption, including his recent visit to Saudi Arabia where he signed a memorandum of understanding, MoU, with the Oversight and Anti-Corruption Authority (NAZAHA) of Saudi Arabia, in a bid to strengthen international partnerships to address the complex challenges posed by corruption,” the statement said.
The meeting came about 48 hours after Mr Tinubu was sworn in as president.
It was Mr Tinubu’s second full day in office after he was inaugurated as the 16th Nigerian leader on Monday.
Mr Tinubu only officially resumed his office on Tuesday, his first full day as president.
Mr Bawa, visiting the Presidential Villa the second day after Mr Tinubu resumed his office, became one of the first heads of parastatals to bring the president to speed on the activities of their agencies.
Mr Bawa was appointed for a statutory five-year tenure by the immediate-past president, Muhammadu Buhari, in February 2021.
Mr Tinubu won the February presidential election, promising to build on Mr Buhari’s achievements in the areas of infrastructural development and other plausible programmes of the past administration.
Although his campaigns laid less emphasis on the anti-corruption drive, they promised broad preventive measures.
For instance, Mr Tinubu said he would “streamline the civil service to fight corruption, reduce bureaucracy in government agencies and decrease inefficiency and waste.”
He also said his administration would support the “existing anti-corruption institutions” and address the underlying issues of corruption in the oil industry.
On Monday, devoted only a line of his inaugural speech to re-echo his promise to strengthen the anti-corruption agencies, including the EFCC, for greater efficiency.
