A cross section of followers from Nigerians and beyond have commended the twitter official handle of the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission, EFCC, ‘@officialEFCC’, which on Thursday, 17 September, 2020, reached the one million followers mark. It has joined the few law enforcement and security agencies across the globe to have reached that milestone.
The official medium of communication, which was created in January 2013, has sent out over 10,000 press releases and statements and has also been a medium of communication and interface with the public, both within and outside the country.
Reacting to the one million followers mark, Mentor C (@charlesumoh4) said “I commend your efforts so far to make Nigeria better just keep up the good work; together, we move, and for Nigerians, don’t forget your whistle at home, always move with it and blow it if you see anything and @officialEFCC shall be there for you.” mav’el potter (@Akhigbemarvelo2) also said “A lot of responsibility on you guys, you deserve whatever celebration, but until we start seeing lots of corrupt politicians & criminals behind bars, your work is still left cut out for you guys. Congrats on this.” However, Joseph (@JosephS63782873) advised “Just be more transparent in your duty. That’s all we need.”
The EFCC, a foremost anti-graft agency in Nigeria, in ensuring that it is not insulated from the public’s assessment in order to evaluate, re-evaluate and improve on processes, strategies and results, relied so much on the social media channels. Thus, the Commission has faced public scrutiny, with the public assessing how it has fared in its pursuit of a just, clean and corrupt-free society.
Leveraging on the twitter micro-blogging reach, the Commission pushed the strategy of enlightening and reorienting the public on the ills of a corrupt system and society by providing relevant information, news and stories while engaging several professionals in different fields, public analysts, social commentators and anti-corruption crusaders, in tweet chats and discussions.
On the reorientation front, the handle has deployed the use of the hash tag, #Young’N’Legit, to promote great strides and feats among the hardworking demographic section of the Nigerian youth. This has helped to showcase the youths deploying the www legitimately, that in spite of the rising rate of internet related crimes in the country, an overwhelming number of young Nigerians are still making the country proud in their chosen fields and careers.
The future remains bright for the EFCC in the fight against corruption as it has vowed to continue to leverage on other social media platforms: FaceBook, Instagram, YouTube including Twitter, as well as the traditional media in the pursuit of its mandate.