Corruption Rooted in Value System, Not Weak Laws — EFCC Chair

 

Chairman of the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC), Ola Olukoyede, has said that corruption flourishes in societies that glorify shortcuts to wealth and compromise core values, insisting that weak laws are not the primary drivers of economic and financial crimes.

Olukoyede made the assertion in the foreword to a new book titled Crime Is a Bad Market, authored by media entrepreneur and founder of Edutainment First International Ltd, Tayo Folorunsho.

According to the EFCC boss, the persistence of financial crimes is largely due to the normalisation of narratives that portray wrongdoing as smart, profitable and socially acceptable.

He said the book aligns with the anti-graft agency’s evolving strategy of tackling corruption beyond prosecution by addressing the beliefs, attitudes and cultural mindsets that make criminal behaviour appealing.

Olukoyede noted that society has increasingly celebrated illicit success, warning that such attitudes pose grave dangers to national development.

“The commission is focused on breaking the siege of corruption in order to stimulate economic growth,” he said.

He described the fight against corruption as not merely a legal duty but a moral obligation.

“Our battle is not only against offenders but against the ideas, narratives and cultural mindsets that make wrongdoing appear rational, even aspirational,” Olukoyede said.

He warned that national decline does not happen overnight but occurs gradually through repeated compromises of values and principles.

“Long before a crime appears on the radar of law enforcement, it begins as a quiet negotiation in the human mind — a moment where principle is weighed against profit and discipline is traded for desire,” he added.

Olukoyede said Crime Is a Bad Market exposes this internal struggle and offers a reorientation of thought by reaffirming that integrity is not only virtuous but profitable.

“The book reminds us that honesty is not weakness but strength, and that a nation’s future is secured not only through enforcement of laws but through the elevation of values,” he said.