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The National Assembly Act establishing the Economic And Financial Crime Commission (EFCC), is one of the best things that happened in Nigeria in the present democratic rule; ordinary Nigerians saw hope, civic society groups were pleased, politicians became cautious and the international community pledge their support at the advent of the commission, all these were for the anticipation; the Commission will be the focal-point for a Nigeria of everyone’s dream- where everything is done within the context of rule of law, public choice, principle of due process , non involvement in arbitrary actions , protection of civil liberties, and avoiding creating a state of confusion between political-and-economic interest of Nigeria with the rights of individuals.
The caption of this piece may be surprising to some people – what had the EFCC, or Nuhu Ribadu got to do with the politics of Adamawa state, since neither the EFCC is a political party nor Nuhu Ribadu a politician? But interestingly, there is, what one will call a strong bond between the EFCC and Adamawa people, well, but someone out there will say- the EFCC have strong bond with all Nigerians because the commission was created to serve the entire nation’s citizens, regardless of the state one comes from. The tie between the Adamawa people and the EFCC is, the Adamawa people are so much proud of, the state has provided the bulk of most of the finest officers steering the activities of the commission, from the chairman of the commission Nuhu Ribadu to the deputy chairman Ibrahim Lamurde and a good number of senior officers.
Nuhu Ribadu was known for his dedication and commitment to duty since his secondary school days, to College of Preliminary Studies Yola and in A.B.U Zaria where he studied Law, his performance in the police force was excellence, thus his nickname the ‘crime buster’. However, political interest of some people, class clash of some groups and bare political skirmishing are out there to blight the effort of this gentleman and completely dragged his name in the mud, and in Adamawa state is it approaching an alarming rate, this is troubling patriotic Adamawa people who are of the hope, Nuhu Ribadu would in future be the third inspector General of the Nigeria police from Adamawa state, the state having produced two previous I.Gs
It is saddening and heart-bleeding to noticed that ‘street talks’ are fast becoming a medium of peddling sensitive operational information of the EFCC, all in the name of getting an edge over political opponents, one salient thing is, politicians who are busy in this act, are masquerading as Nuhu Ribadu’s family relation, or politicians who have the ear of president Obasanjo, or self-acclaimed kingmakers who are parading themselves as people who have the power to dictate to the EFCC, thus informing their followers that the EFCC will be a medium to easily get political power, sadly this situation is continually staining the already thinning credibility of the EFCC not only in the eyes of politicians but in the eyes of ordinary people on the streets; and at the same time well-informed people are of the opinion ; Nuhu Ribadu may be unaware of this unpleasant happening; but onlookers are to a great extent, so curious at the level of coinciding between what these ‘street talkers’ will say and what the EFCC will do; One year and Four months ago, these street information peddlers were going around saying the EFCC is coming to Adamawa state, to arrest some certain government officials; one of the startling thing was, the EFCC came, arrested same officials which hitherto mentioned group said they would be arrested, and at the time they said the EFCC will arrived, equally the recent arrest of some five Adamawa state lawmakers by the EFCC was already known to most followers of politics in Adamawa state courtesy of these people, and surprisingly it happened on the day and at the time it was rumored to take place.
There is another rumor going around the streets of Adamawa state, that a serving senator had had a meeting with the EFCC’s chain of command, on how his party, the PDP will be helped to victory, his supporters are busy in a pompous manner telling who cares to know, that the AC gubernatorial candidate would be arrested and intimidated by the EFCC in the first week of February, so as to disorganize him. Another rumor going around is, the EFCC have frozen the accounts of all local government councils in Adamawa state, because of the dissolution of the councils by the Adamawa state government- a dissolution that was done by most states of the federation some months back without any feeling of resentment by anybody.
It is a pity, that, some people have come to a point of seeing the EFCC as a branch of their PDP; when one reads the arithmetic well, the larger understanding is, the PDP believe they can ascent to power in Adamawa state base on two grounds only: by using the EFCC to arrest and forced Adamawa state lawmakers to impeach the incumbent governor or an orchestrated harassment of the AC candidate by the EFCC, to systematically muddled the AC.
One wonders how an important outfit like the EFCC, which all and sundry expect a splendid and logical organization of its activities, can allowed itself to be marred by politicians, these has brought to fore many thorny questions , is the EFCC system of keeping their classified information so vulnerable that anyone on the street can have an unhindered access to? Is the leadership of the EFCC aware of this? Are these fine officers of commission who are from Adamawa aware at the level of which ordinary people now perceive them? At the level at which some politicians brought new dimension to Adamawa politics, now the situation is portraying Nuhu Ribadu as anti-minority, but this writer having been from the same area with Nuhu Ribadu can dismiss this allegation with a wave of hand, but the truth is, Nuhu Ribadu being the head of EFCC and being from Adamawa have a Herculean task to arrest the ugly trend, sometime it serve us right to make a go-slow at our journey in life and look at the path covered, so as to make amends.
Zayyad I. Muhammad writes from Jimeta
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