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| Nigeria's Anti-Graft War: Ribadu's Secret Agenda |
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| Written by Chidi Nwosu | |
| Saturday, 14 October 2006 | |
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We are living witnesses to the fact that, during the dark era of the military, Nigeria was pictured as a den of criminals because corruption had assumed the status of culture. Governance was run in the dark, instead of in the open. Rulers were accountable to themselves, instead of the governed. In America, the Caribbean, Europe, etc. it was a taboo to identify oneself as a Nigeria because a mere mention of the word invoked criminality in the mind of foreigners. We therefore rated among the world’s most corrupt nations.
But at the inception of the present administration on May 29, 1999, not a few Nigerians and even foreigners in solidarity to democracy in our great country were happy. The reason was not only because of the withdrawal of the military back to the barracks but also because of the opportunities Nigeria’s emerging democracy would provide us. As a founding member of the Transparency International (TI), an anti-graft crusader, there was no doubt as to whether or not Obasanjo possessed the messianic qualities required to rescue Nigeria from the murky water of corruption, which she was drenched in.
Conscious of the injury inflicted on our national life by corruption, and considering that until prominent sailors in the country’s ocean of corruption are brought to book, the Nigeria of our dream will continue to elude us, President Obasanjo hurriedly constituted the Independent and Corrupt Practices Commission (ICPC) and later on the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC). He made it crystal clear to all and sundry that it was not going to be business as usual.
At the on-set, the opposition described the anti-graft bodies as President Obasanjo’s tool for the intimidation and subjugation of his perceived enemies. However, the arrest and prosecution of the immediate past Inspector-General of Police, Alhaji Tafa Balogun as well as the ex-Senate President, Adolf Wabara have shown the contrary. He has recovered several billions of naira from treasury looters. Indeed, Obasanjo has recorded a remarkable achievement in ensuring that the years the locusts and the cankerworms represented by corruption, have eaten are restored.
But we are profoundly disappointed to discover that the trend of events in the anti-graft. It has assumed a very dangerous dimension. Unknown to President Obasanjo, the EFCC’s Chairman, Malam Nuhu Ribadu has a secret agenda. We can authoritatively state that the listing of 33 governors as corrupt by the EFCC’s boss, Malam Nuhu Ribadu on the floor of the Senate last week, was not engendered by the zeal for the purification of the mess caused by corruption in the polity but by a secret agenda to advance the interests of a certain power-seeking clique. Thorough investigations of the governors would show that some, if not most of them are not guilty as charged but victims of the conspiratorial forces of envy and greed. History will certainly vindicate us.
Solid information available to us revealed that, in his quest to succeed President Obasanjo, the Minister of the Federal Capital Territory (FCT), Malam Nasir El-Rufai had a surreptitious deal with Ribadu to blackmail all the governors perceived to constitute serious threats to his ambition. Though they cut across the 6 geo-political zones of the country, those of them from the southeast, which have tasted power for only 6 months and the southsouth that have never tasted it since independence, are the targets. With scandal hung around their necks, they would be battling to redeem their politically motivated battered image than continuing with and/or joining the presidential race. This would soon be followed by ‘calls’ on El-Rufai by mercenary hirelings, especially from the southeast and the southsouth to join the race as the only “credible candidate for the highest political seat in the land”. And if the plan worked as planned, our source further revealed, Ribadu would be appointed the National Security Adviser, in return for a job “well done”. What a wicked means candidate” for the exalted office. of capturing power!
While we are not opposed to El-Rufai’s entry into the presidential race, we condemn his resort to blackmail as a means of realizing his ambition. This, we strongly believe, is not only an act of cowardice but also an invitation to anarchy. It is capable of destroying all the efforts the present administration has made to ensure the continued existence of this country; it will aggravate the Biafra palaver, youth restiveness and agitations for resource control occasioned by the persistent years of accumulated injustices and oppressions meted out to the southeast and the southsouth by successive administrations in the country. Who will be the ultimate loser? Certainly, our hard-earned democracy. God forbid!
It is no doubt as a result of Ribadu’s secret agenda that he has not bothered to investigate into the allegations of abuse of office leveled against El-Rufai by no less a personality than the eldest son of President Obasanjo, Gbenga Obasanjo. In an interview with a United States-based investigative reporter, Omoyele Sowore and published by The WEEK January this year, Gbenga stated inter alia look at AP and the privatization process. They just sold the entire country to themselves. Look at the Pentascope deal; they stole over one billion dollars from Nigeria without fixing a single telephone line! This was done between El-Rufai and VP Atiku. Go to the Corporate Affairs and see who own Pentascope. You will see the fraud perpetrated against Nigeria.” Buttressing his point, Gbenga added, “Look at what he did with Jimi Lawal through the Bureau of Public Enterprise (BPE). They paid him back all the money he looted from Alpha Merchant Bank. With interests! He was rehabilitated by El-Rufai and made a consultant, selling land in Abuja. He is El-Rufai’s shadow man in Abuja. He collects bribes for land sales in Abuja on behalf of El-Rufai. We know that these things are still going on.” Or aren’t these allegations worth probing? It is disheartening that, despite the gravity of these allegations, Ribadu will continue to sweep them under the carpet because of his membership of the presidential campaign organization of Ell-Rufai.
Given that Ribadu has degenerated to a dog among, and realizing that he has lost the moral right to continue as the anti-graft Commission, we demand his immediate resignation and the revisit of the allegations leveled against the governors. This will avert any imminent crises that might arise from the irresponsible use of the EFCC to witch-hunt the perceived enemies of Ribadu’s political enemies and friends. As the Holy Scriptures say, “Let his position (Ribadu’s) be taken by another since iniquity has been found in him.” |
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