Nigeria: EFCC - a New Gestapo?

[Richard Akindele]

Much as we try to avoid moving with the herd or joining the madding crowd here in the Daily Trust, we find it very difficult to disagree with the faction of the Peoples Democratic Party which posited the frightening possibility recently of our federal government turning Nigeria into a police state through the instrumentality of the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC).

Quite clearly, it must be getting more and more obvious to all adult and sane Nigerians nowadays that what we are witnessing is an alarming and creeping slide into despotism and government by terror. A nation in which the president is at such open and very public war with his deputy, up to the intolerable level of prying into each other's bank accounts in order to uncover evidence of financial malfeasance, real or contrived, cannot be described as one fit to govern it rationally, if we must all be candid with ourselves.

And given the incontrovertible lessons of recent world history, we dare not tu rn a blind eye to the cold fact that despotism and plain madness in power are real and possible in the minds of national leaders, we dare not fail to shrilly blow the whistle in honest alarm when we see clear signs of public power being used or misused for private purposes which are completely divorced from the good of the citizenry.

Ordinarily, nobody will feel any sense of dread at the draconian steps being taken by the Obasanjo administration to ostensibly put paid to the criminal reign of terror which corruption has entrenched in our public and private lives as a national community. But in trying so hard, so late in the day for his lame duck tenure in power, Chief Obasanjo's government is seeding our nation's soil with so much distress that it begins to look as if the man is trying to bring down the nation's roof on our heads, along with his inevitable exit from power.

We find no reason or logic, for example, in his recent attempt to ramrod a bill through the National As sembly and turn into law the wholly repugnant idea of turning the already dreadfully-powerful EFCC into a virtual Geheime Staats Polizei [GESTAPO] in the image of Nazi Germany's instrument of state terrorism, in the name of wiping out corruption in the land. The path to perdition has always been paved with ostensibly good intentions, no doubt.

But the recent actions of this government in its dying days seem to point to a coldly planned attempt to throw Nigeria into such chaos as to make a peaceful transfer of democratic power to a new set of legitimate leaders impossible, and to make peaceful transfer of power impracticable. This attempt to mix the laws of the nation with transient political incumbency in power cannot be allowed to succeed. This attempt to give the EFCC powers to search and seize our people and properties must not be allowed to see the light of day, because it is so clearly vindictive and contrived to witch-hunt and destroy specific political opponents of th is federal government.

We strongly urge our rejuvenated National Assembly to throw out this miscegenated potential law as unceremoniously as it did when it killed the third term motion. And to President Obasanjo, we offer this consolation: it is not a thing to be ashamed about if a leader of men is tempted to cling to power. It is absolutely understandable, totally human and pardonable. What is unpardonable is for a leader to try to bring the roof down on his head and everybody else's head, like the biblical Samson, all in order to remain in power or avenge one's self for failure to cling to it.

Daily Trust.

[Richard Akindele]

Nigeria has been overpowered by corruption for decades. Finally somebody is doing something about it.

If turning Nigeria into a police state is what it takes to rid the country of these corrupt officials, I'm all for it.

Once Nigeria's psyche has successfully been altered, and the people in government cease to see government job as an easy opportunity to steal, we can at that time deal with the issues posed by Nigeria being a police state. But until then, we need to understand that intrusive searches and seizures are inevitable to eradicate corruption which has become endemic in our country.