No shortcuts to wealth, EFCC boss tell youths

The Chairman of the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC), Abdulrasheed Bawa, has charged youths in Nigeria to embrace hard work and shun deceitful means of quick and instant wealth.

Bawa said this during a sensitization lecture on the role of youths in curbing economic and financial crimes in the country at the National Youth Service Corps (NYSC) orientation camps across the country.

The EFCC chairman, represented by the spokespersons of the agency across the country, said there is no shortcut to success, and individuals who take shortcuts are always cut short.

Bawa, speaking through its spokesperson in Edo State, Williams Oseghale, told the corps member that internet fraud is not a sustainable way of life, noting that it is a crime against humanity and God.

The EFCC chairman urged the corps members to enlist in the anti-graft army by joining the NYSC/EFCC Anti-Corruption Community Development Service (CDS) group and to be innovative, forward-looking, and hard thinkers.

Meanwhile, in Kaduna State, Bawa, represented by Nana Fatima Abubakar, urged the youths to harness their intelligence and energy for the greater public good in their various areas of primary assignment and be change agents during their one-year compulsory service by embracing only acts that could add positive value to the country’s aspirations.

Bawa at the NYSC orientation camp in Oyo State also charged Nigerian youths to shun corruption and other social vices that could endanger their future and jeopardize the socio-economic growth of the country.

He stated that the youths must rise to the challenge of curbing economic and financial crimes, including corruption in our society and not use poverty and unemployment as a basis to perpetrate internet fraud.

“The menace of internet fraud among our youths is worrisome, as youths are getting involved deeply in cybercrimes to the detriment of their future and the image of our nation. The fraudulent claim to reparation as a basis for internet fraud is unacceptable and criminal,”

“The lazy excuses of poverty and unemployment as rationalisation and justification for internet crimes are also untenable, as poverty should not be an excuse for criminality, and unemployment cannot be a basis for defrauding others of their hard-earned income.”

EFCC spokesman in Kano State, Idris Isiyaku, stated that Bawa also charged the corps members in the state to be whistle-blowers by exposing corrupt activities in their communities and encouraged them to not lose hope in Nigeria and to believe in its potential of one day becoming a great nation.

“We are convinced that all hope is not lost in the effort to bring this country back from the brink. As dynamic young men and women, our desire is to harness your intelligence and energy for the greater public good in your areas of primary assignments,” he added.