‘It is frustrating,’ EACC Chair David Oginde says of State job 8 months in office

Ethics and Anti-Corruption Commission (EACC) Chairperson Bishop David Oginde has termed his 8-month experience at the helm of the anti-graft watchdog so far as “frustrating,” but adding that he is upto the task.

Speaking on Citizen TV’s Jeff Koinange Live show on Wednesday, Oginde - who was appointed to office in May this year - decried the uncouth behaviour displayed by top government officials linked to corruption schemes and their unwillingness to admit to their mistakes, surrender and seek redress.

The EACC boss, who compared his current tenure at the commission to his previous position as CITAM Bishop, said the State job he holds currently subjected him to many challenges in the first weeks to a point that he had to rethink if he actually made the right decision accepting the job.

“It is a very interesting transition…the place where I have been as Bishop, as Pastor in church, things are a bit more predictable. Where I am today it’s like there are many balls in the air and you are never sure which one to catch and which one will drop...you are kept busy,” he said.

“In the first three or so weeks, it was so frustrating that I wondered what I was doing here. It feels frustrating…think of a child you have caught red-handed in the fridge with the cheese and they are saying it is not me, I didn’t do it. You feel frustrated because you wish they would say I was hungry and I got into the fridge and did this.”

According to the EACC Chair, the fight against graft would be easier if the accused persons would just come out of the woodwork and engage the commission for an amicable solution, instead of continuously denying allegations and acting hypocritical in public.

“Even forgiveness in the church is not blanket. If people come forward and expect that they are wrong, we will see what we have to do with them. Unfortunately, almost all the people we are pursuing always deny that they are wrong,” he noted.

Bishop Oginde cited an incident where a senior government official reprimanded him for slacking in the fight against corruption, yet the commission was - at the very time - investigating that same leader on graft allegations.

“You see people whose every indication is that they have done wrong but they are the same people who are standing on public platforms and making all kinds of noises about the wrongdoing that is being done in the country,” he lamented.

“I was in a meeting of senior government leaders and this leader pointed at me and said, ‘EACC you need to do something, Bishop you need to do something about corruption in this country’…at that time I had a file on this person, and I was feeling like standing up and saying ‘we need to start with you!’”

Bishop Oginde went ahead to express optimism about handling the task at hand saying he will be able to deliver effectively.

“With time I have realized that this is something we cannot give up on, we must fight it to the very end… It is not more than I can chew it is just that there is just more meat in the bone,” he stated.