The advisory list recently released by the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission, EFCC, is generating controversy in the polity and reminds one of the no love relationships between the Commission and Politicians. Put differently, nothing agitates the average Nigerian politician more than when there is a threat to jeopardize his or her political aspirations, and nothing unites politicians in Nigeria more than when they identify a common enemy. This perhaps explain the united outrage that greeted a list of politicians released by the EFCC to political parties advising them not to field some particular individuals in April 2011 general elections. While releasing the list, the EFCC made it clear that it was simply advisory and that it had no such powers to stop any one from contesting the 2011general elections. Just as the Commission was about explaining itself out of the list, lawyers and other right activists slammed EFCC, positing that the Commission is fast descending into an epoch of lawlessness. This paper examines the threat and challenges political corruption poses to Nigeria as April election draws nearer. It explores the concept of political corruption, the causes and implications and suggests ways of checkmating political corruption in the polity. The paper concludes by hailing both INEC and the parties for distancing themselves from the list. This are equally in sharp contrast to what happened in the run up to the 2007 elections where the Ahmadu Ali led PDP supervised by Obasanjo wrote Iwu’s INEC to bar some of its members from contesting the elections.

The advisory list recently released by the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission, EFCC, is generating controversy in the polity and reminds one of the no love relationships between the Commission and Politicians. Put differently, nothing agitates the average Nigerian politician more than when ...