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nairaland.net • View topic - Who Then Should EFCC Arrest?

Who Then Should EFCC Arrest?

Who Then Should EFCC Arrest?

Postby Richard Akindele » Fri Aug 25, 2006 5:35 pm

While the media and other watchdogs of society are right in trying to be vigilant so that the EFCC is not turned into a tool for anyone's private agenda, it is unfortunate that they have unwittingly allowed themselves to become willing tools in the blackmail campaign being waged against the EFCC and especially its head, Nuhu Ribadu.

Something tells me that the diplomats and spies who are paid and sent here to report on us to their home governments do not find it easy doing their job. I say so because we are a difficult to understand people. All the time, we keep giving very contradictory signals which will make it hard for anyone to understand, predict or even psycho-analyse us.

What, for instance, can anyone say is the national character of Nigeria? That we are a consistently inconsistent people? That we are a people who are ruled by sentiments with regards to ethnic group, religion or region? That we are a people who cannot be predicted? That we are a people so gullible and who easily allow themselves to be manipulated by smart crooks and rouges by appealing to all manner of sentiments?

What is it that is pushing me to 'philosophise' about our great country? Well, that matter has to do with our attitude to the Economic and Financial and Crimes Commission (EFCC) and President Olusegun Obasanjo's war against corruption and graft being spearheaded by the irrepressible Nuhu Ribadu.

Every Nigerian appears to have agreed that bribery, corruption and the looting of our national treasury by some of those we have entrusted with leadership are the evils that have brought us so low as a nation. Everybody also appears to have agreed that these evils are public enemies that should be fought very vigorously if Nigeria is to become a truly great nation.

Given this reality, one would expect that Nigerians will stand resolutely behind the EFCC in fighting the just war it is prosecuting. But quite surprisingly, that does not seem to be the case. Rather, Nigerians, including the media, seem to have allowed themselves to be used in a blackmail campaign against the EFCC.

If the EFCC arrests, detains and questions Mohammed Babangida, there are sure to be people who will rise up and say the real target is Ibrahim Babangida, his father and the motivation is that Obasanjo does not want the older Babangida to succeed him as president.

When a few weeks back, the EFCC arrested the Glo chief, Mike Adenuga, some adept manipulators of the public mood rose up in arms against the arrest, wondering why a 'business mogul' with such a high profile international reputation should have been arrested. Some said Adenuga was merely a proxy victim of the anti-Atiku war being waged by Obasanjo.

The other day, the Benue State governor cried out that the arrest of some of his officials has crippled his government. I have not recalled anyone in the past few days wondering aloud to His Excellency which is more crippling: the wholesale looting of the state's treasury by his officials or the arrest of those men in order to find out their roles in the crime against the people?

When the rumour was on that President Olusegun Obasanjo wanted a third term in office, anyone who was quizzed by the EFCC easily claimed that he owed his ordeal to his lack of support for the tenure elongation bid. And many Nigerians believed such a claimant. Today, the hottest rumour in town now is that with the failure of the third term project, the plan now is for an interim government. Given the fertile imagination of our countrymen and women in evolving creative blackmail, we will soon begin to hear anyone who is picked up by the EFCC say that his plight is traceable to his fierce opposition to the unholy plan to elongate Obasanjo's tenure through the guise of interim government.

I am greatly amused at the obvious confusion of my countrymen about what is going on between the EFCC and some top officials of the Ekiti State government. Nigerians, who are so quick to attribute every of EFCC's moves to the achievement of Obasanjo' political objective, cannot quite understand what it is doing in Ekiti State, carpeting close aides of Governor Ayo Fayose. Fayose was not recorded to have opposed third term. He has not voiced out any opposition against the so-called interim government. He is not a known political associate of Vice President Atiku Abubakar and cannot therefore be said to be one of those who are persecuted for being associates of the VP.

It does appear as if some conspiracy theorists who see the invisible behind every of EFCC's moves are running out of explanations or of excuses to portray EFCC as a tool of vendetta in the hands of Obasanjo.

Since Nigerians seem to think that it is wrong for the EFCC to arrest a business mogul because of his standing in society; to touch the son of a former president; to arrest, detain and question high government officials; to quiz presidential, governorship and other top aspirants to high political offices and cast doubts on the integrity of the high and mighty in the society, who then do they think EFCC should be dealing with in the war against graft and malfeasance?

Should Nuhu Ribadu and his men be arresting street-sweepers, gutter-diggers, market women and palm-wine tappers who have no access to public funds? It is clear to me that the nature of Ribadu's job is to deal with powerful but roguish people who have huge reputations, some of these reputations acquired by the wealth they made from looting the commonwealth.

Nigerians claim they welcome the fight against graft yet they seem to want Ribadu not to touch sacred cows. How possible can that be? We must not behave like the chichi dodo bird which hates excreta with a passion yet loves the maggots that grow on it. Those who believe that some people are too big to be touched are certainly hypocritical in their desire that the war against stealing in high places should be fought. Certain gods must have to be demystified or desecrated if we are to scratch the problem confronting us as a people.

While the media and other watchdogs of society are right in trying to be vigilant so that the EFCC is not turned into a tool for anyone's private agenda, it is unfortunate that they have unwittingly allowed themselves to become willing tools in the blackmail campaign being waged against the EFCC and especially its head, Nuhu Ribadu.

We must not in any way do or say anything that would lend credence to the campaign of calumny being waged against EFCC by those who have so many rotten skeletons in their cupboards. If anyone who is picked up by the EFCC cries about victimisation, let us first ask him whether he is clean. We should not immediately join his pity party by portraying the organisation as a bully.

As far as I am concerned, even if the EFCC is a weapon of vendetta, it is carrying out vendetta not against the poor and honest but against the rich and powerful who have contributed to the ruin of this country. The EFCC is a conspiracy of the elite against the elite. This conspiracy is good for Nigeria. By the time Nuhu Ribadu is through with his demolition job, Nigeria will certainly have fewer crooks in high places to do her harm.

Daily Trust.
Richard Akindele
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