UDUS ZTC-EFCC At a Glance and the Red Eagles

By: Abdulrahman Tanimu 

The Zero Tolerance for Corruption (EFCC-ZTC) is the watchful eye that checks the affairs of students and all associations, clubs, and even the students union on campus to create a corrupt-free environment that would lead to the progress of the University.  Ever since its creation, it has engaged in sensitization and investigation of all forms of corrupt acts on campus which yielded fruitful results.

The founder and first president was the late Umar Bello Maijama'a who was a student of Usmanu Danfodio University, Sokoto. The EFCC-ZTC has produced 12 Presidents since its creation, and the current president is Red Eagle Shehu Munir Waziri who came into power in the 2020/2021 academic session and was re-instated for a second tenure in the 2022/2023 academic session due to his steadfastness towards fighting corruption on the campus.

Earlier this year, the EFCC-ZTC logo was changed by the Economic and Financial Crime Commission (EFCC) to a logo that looks 70% to theirs, and the rank was given to all ZTC-EFCC members which is "Red Eagle" and can be abbreviated as "R.E".

The goals and objectives of the EFCC-ZTC are sensitization on the dangers of corruption in its entirety and supporting the EFCC, ICPC, and University management in the fight against the cankerworm, and also investigating corrupt practices to ensure its eradication by the appropriate body.

The EFCC-ZTC has solved numerous cases on campus that this space can't contain if mentioned. Here are a few cases that were solved.

Some years back, a Students' Union President engaged in embezzlement of funds and was impeached from office with the EFCC-ZTC recommendation.

In a case of theft connected with the cyber scam, the criminal was made to not only account for the fraud but also face punishments.

Just recently, in a case of state associations election, the mandate was given to a candidate that polled the highest votes but unknown to the ELCOM, he is not fit to run for office.

President Shehu Munir Waziri stated that dozens of cases are still on his desk and he assure that they would stay focused on ensuring a clean environment with truthfulness, fairness, and transparency.

EFCC-ZTC has a lot of committees depending on the situation at hand, the prominent committees are;

The investigation committee, the disciplinary committee, the publication committee, the programming committee, and the Election and Election petitions committee.

When asked about the relationship with The Economic and Financial Crime Commission(EFCC), Munir replied "Our relationship with the EFCC is as exact as a father and son relationship, the EFCC connects and relates with us well as we are an extension of the EFCC. They treat us with respect, dignity and see us as their staff. Whenever called upon, they answer smiling, that is how serious the EFCC is in clearing up the mess (CORRUPTION)".

EFCC-ZTC collaborated with student unions in many higher institutions within the country to conduct a nationwide sensitization in secondary schools across the nation, in which the EFCC-ZTC in Usmanu Danfodio University anchored the program.

On many occasions, they collaborated with the Anti-corruption and Transparency Unit of the University. Currently, they are in collaboration with many associations both outside and within the University to ward off corrupt practices.

When asked about the achievements of the club, the president of the club R.E Shehu Munir Waziri said, "The number of achievements is many, even though we are not a political organization, we don't publicize achievements because it may make us lose focus thinking we did as expected, but we don't (if corruption still exists). We are always hoping for criticism because it will make us do even more in this glorified fight.

Our achievements range from grand sensitizations (because it is our main focus) to Convicted cases (Some of which I have stated earlier) and the discipline we instill.

In his words, the following is an iceberg of the club's achievements: 

1. Sensitizations: The EFCC ZTC deployed more than 200 volunteers to Nigerian Secondary Schools in 19 states where they are equipped with training on sensitizations to the students of the various secondary schools on the dangers of the greatest enemy of civilization (corruption). Also, we engaged in Webinars, Virtual Conferences &  Programs all with the view of enlightenment on corruption and its dangers.

-  Sensitization rallies and campaigns to physically demonstrate our support in the fight.

2. Restructuring process: 

We have engaged in a restructuring process where we achieved several things;

- Total restructuring which includes Mode of Registration into the EFCC ZTC, Value addition, Personal Development, Professional Training, etc.

- Creation of a chain of command in the Investigation Committee and other committees.

3. Expansion

-  We created Integrity Club in all the over 200 schools where our volunteers trained students on corruption and assigned monitors to guide them in the affairs.

- We have created an expansion plan where we singlehandedly launched EFCC-ZTC at Federal University Birnin Kebbi (FUBK), Federal University Gusau (FUGUS), Kebbi State University of Science and Technology Aliero (KSUSTA),  among many others, with the approval of the EFCC. And now because of our efforts, the EFCC collaborates with us just a month ago and created the EFCC-ZTC in COE Sokoto, Integrity Club in FGC Sokoto, UDUMSS and immediately after Sallah we are hitting Kebbi and Zamfara States for the same purpose.