away of huge amounts of public resources in foreign banks, mainly in the developed world. 112 302. Against this backdrop of widespread corruption, the civilian regime which came to power in 1999 declared all-out war against corruption. Section 15 (5) of chapter 2 of the constitution, which stipulates that “the state shall abolish all corrupt practices and abuse of power”, emboldened the administration to create public agencies to fight corruption at all levels. 303. The ICPC and EFCC were established by President Obasanjo early in his tenure of office. Although these anticorruption agencies were designed to extirpate corruption in Nigeria, at the operational level several constraints are being encountered, due mainly to insufficient coordination of anticorruption work within the public sector, inadequate funding, and the raising of serious questions about their effectiveness, efficiency and impartiality. The ICPC is handicapped in its efforts to investigate several governors accused of corruption due to lack of funding to secure the services of investigators. The ICPC is unable to open offices in the 36 states because of lack of resources. These developments have caused ordinary Nigerians to accuse the government of being soft on corruption. 304. The INEC was established by law to manage all aspects of the national election process and to monitor the organisation and operation of all political parties. This included auditing their finances and placing the audit reports in the public domain. The head of the INEC is appointed by the chief executive, who also provides the commission’s funding. It is generally agreed that the INEC’s management of elections is flawed and deemed to be noncredible, and lacking in transparency and impartiality. It can easily be reduced to a weak pawn in the hands of a dominant political party and overambitious incumbents. As electoral corruption is the mother lode of all corruption, it is therefore absolutely critical to tackle this phenomenon as a sustained national priority if significant progress is to be made against the menace of political corruption in Nigeria. A stringent national strategy must be developed and implemented by all Nigerians for the 2011 elections so as to ensure a credible outcome and a mandate truly reflective of Nigeria’s popular will. 305. The ICPC and EFCC, the National Economic Empowerment and Development Strategy (NEEDS) and other reform measures in the public sector, such as open and competitive bidding for government contracts, have brought about some progress and improvement in the anticorruption crusade. For the first time in the history of postcolonial Nigeria, the fight against Hydra-headed corruption is yielding significant results. Highprofile public officials like ministers, governors, presidents of the Senate and so forth have been investigated, prosecuted and punished. However, the CSAR states that the immunity laws of the constitution, which protect incumbent elected executives at the federal and state levels from being brought to book for corruption, are clearly hampering the work of these two institutions.