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Still A Vote Of No Confidence: Why Nuhu Ribadu Must Go By Aonduna Tondu
There seems to be general consensus today that the anti-corruption outfit that goes by the acronym of EFCC (The Economic and Financial Crimes Commission) is bedeviled by a serious credibility problem. Of course, it goes without saying that the moral crisis confronting the EFCC is largely self-inflicted and has to do with a leadership under an individual that lacks the discipline and sobriety required of a public officer in his position. To compound matters, Nuhu Ribadu’s EFCC is still rightly perceived by Nigerians as essentially a partisan contraption in the service of the ex-tyrant from Ota and his confederates whose desperation to hang on to power as well as protect their suspected expropriation of the nation’s collective assets is fueling the continued selective hounding mainly of figures opposed to the former dictator called Obasanjo.
For those who thought that the formal end of the disastrous eight-year rule by Kabiyesi would lead to a semblance of transparency and consistency in the way the corruption-fighting body operates, they must be shocked to learn that what citizens have been treated to since the installation of the Yar’Adua regime are the same loud media-driven antics on the part of Nuhu Ribadu and his associates. The EFCC under Ribadu is still essentially a mischief-ridden entity that pays lip-service to due process and is inhabited by the demon of political partisanship that plays to the gallery in an insidious war that dares not declare itself . Nigeria and the rest of the world should be alert. We have for too long been taken for granted by the very forces whose reckless disregard for the rule of law and the common good has in no small measure led to the profound sense of malaise the country is experiencing these days.
The post-May 29, 2007 era has been one of acute societal anxiety. It is also one of fear and trepidation on the part of those elements whose misrule between 1999 and 2007 in particular has inflicted so much suffering and misery on the average Nigerian. Precariously ensconced in their comfort zones, Obasanjo and his fellow riders on the Nigerian gravy train are increasingly feeling insecure and desperate. A case of post-Third Term blues, no doubt. On account of their sordid legacy, these revelers wrongly believe that a frontal attack on their political foes would ensure their stranglehold on our socio-economic spaces, hence the Ribadu/EFCC weapon of revanchist zealotry and impunity. That Yar’adua appears to have thrown his lot with the ex-tyrant and his foot-soldiers in the Ribadu mould in what is by all intents and purposes a continuation of the egregious war of attrition the Ota potentate and his acolytes have waged against much of Nigeria is a sad commentary on the political sagacity of the former Katsina governor. Yar’Adua should dispel the impression that he is helping protect those politicians whose support – financial or otherwise – was partly responsible for his controversial emergence as president. The people must be prepared to fight Yar’Adua on this issue of critical national importance. He and his government should be made to realize that the anti-corruption struggle, for it to be credible, must be seen as above board, transparent and not tailored to cater to the whims and caprices of Nigeria’s scoundrels suffering from messianic delusions or their hangover.
The point needs to be reiterated that under the PDP-led Obasanjo tyranny, most of the well-documented corruption in the nation’s public service was located at the presidency. The World Bank and the Auditor- General’s office under the former Acting Auditor-General, Azie, have remarkably added their voices to the chorus of damning testimonies regarding the rampant corruption and mismanagement under Nigeria’s last ruler. A logical question then arises: Why are the EFCC and Yar’Adua so obsessed with some governors while at the same time refusing to turn the searchlight on that altar of infamy called the presidency under Obasanjo? For almost the entire duration of his profligacy, Obasanjo made himself the de facto oil minister. The oil sector in general was run like a primitive private enclave with neither transparent accounting nor the will to see to it that the great majority of citizens did benefit from a natural resource so strategic in their lives. Together with the oil domain, the so-called privatization scheme of the Obasanjo interregnum was reduced to something akin to a barbaric and wanton plunder of national gems in the likes of hotels, government houses, communications outfits, steel complexes and refineries, etc., to the extent that while lazy rent collectors and shylocks – friends or fronts of the regime’s main actors - of a decadent and convenient laisser-faire ploy indulged their gluttonous appetites and continue to make merry at the expense of the nation and its children, the country’s schools, hospitals, road infrastructure and industries, just to name but a few, have all but collapsed. Where then is the justice?
Those who have greatly contributed to the state of anomie in the country today are not just the governors Ribadu and his political master, Kabiyesi are gleefully persecuting cheered on by a largely complacent national media. The principal character that presided over perhaps the worst type of corruption – election rigging – in the history of the country coupled with the systematic looting of the nation’s collective patrimony must be made to face the music. And, as a parenthesis, Nigerians will make Obasanjo account for his terrible human rights record. More than any other individual, the ex-tyrant and his former ministers should be probed considering the compelling wealth of evidence pointing to the widespread and unprecedented corruption within the federal administration in the past eight years. Nigerians must not forget that under Obasanjo, the federal government alone reportedly retained about 58 % of funds shared amongst the various tiers of government. Instructively, one of the former governors arrested by the EFCC has reportedly stated through his aides that a big chunk of the money he is accused of stealing did go to fund the notorious Third Term scam of the Ota tin god. It is unacceptable for the EFCC to hide behind forlorn excuses by flippantly refusing to probe the allegations made by Senator Turaki. There is also the matter of the money smuggling scandal for which an Obasanjo adjunct named “Andy” Uba has been indicted by the American authorities as revealed by court records. Again, the EFCC under Ribadu has invoked rather spurious arguments in their hypocritical refusal to investigate this damning scandal with potentially far-reaching implications. Where then is the justice?. “Andy” Uba, it should be remembered, it is who smuggled about one hundred thousand dollars ($170.000.00) on the presidential plane on which Obasanjo was a passenger. Court records show that a sum of forty-five thousand dollars of that amount was used for the purchase of equipment for the Obasanjo farms at Ota! Nigerians and the international community deserve to know the source of the money involved in the said scandal and to what extent it may constitute the tip of the iceberg in a suspected pillaging of the public treasury. And there is also the small matter of the over six billion naira swindle called the Presidential Library fund whereby highly questionable donations of suspected public money were made by corporate bodies and individuals. Surely, this scandal also deserves to be probed. The list is long but one must start somewhere.
If Yar’Adua truly wants to be taken seriously, he should be on the side of the people and begin without further hesitation the probe of Obasanjo, his former aides as well as ministers. Fighting corruption has to be seen as a holistic enterprise and not just one informed by the vagaries of partisanship and opportunism. It will involve all and sundry. The conduct of the media will be crucial here. A situation whereby an indolent national media has due to its complacency and knee-jerk posturing contributed to the current bastardization of the necessary anti-corruption struggle in the land should be viewed with utmost concern. What has come to be derisively known as the Kabiyesi press because of its genuflecting and subservient mien vis-à-vis those in positions of authority has so far played a largely disheartening role. Merely echoing the partisan positions of agents of the EFCC obviously beholden to the ex-dictator from Ota, the Lagos-Ibadan axis of the national media in particular has helped Ribadu in the pursuit of his unwholesome ways. These days, the favorite tactic has been the planting of unsubstantiated rumors in the media that anonymous powerful forces are out to get him because of his supposedly principled stand! The aim, as always, it seems, is to whip up uncritical support for the shenanigans of an operative apparently imbued with a credibility deficit and his discredited outfit. Under Ribadu, our collective determination to truly fight official sleaze has been bogged down – frittered away in a swamp of contradiction, inconsistency and a tendency to grandstand emanating from the man and his political allies as was recently demonstrated by the orchestrated and illegal overthrow of former governors in places like Anambra, Oyo, Ekiti and Plateau. The immediate challenge for the Yar’Adua administration is therefore to help in the national effort to have Ribadu fired without further delay. Or, better still, the current EFCC chairman should voluntarily hand in his resignation. He should also publicly declare his assets. One more thing: The EFCC should render a transparent account of all the money and other assets recovered from looters.
It is hoped that under a new and more credible leadership, the anti-corruption campaign will regain momentum and respectability which have been sorely lacking under Nuhu Ribadu and the previous Obasanjo regime.
Aonduna Tondu
New York
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