Despite the controversy over the bid to remove Mallam Nuhu Ribadu as the Chairman of the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission, EFCC, the only regret the anti corruption czar has is that President Umaru Yar Adua once stopped him from accepting a top position in the United Nations secretariat on the ground that he should stay in the country to help fight corruption.
Sources close to Mallam Ribadu said that he was once offered a job in the UN but had to turn it down following persuasion from the President.
The source also said that Mallam Ribadu is calm over the whole issue of whether or not he would be removed from office. According to the source, Ribadu has consulted widely on his future in the police and has decided to stay. According to the reliable source, Ribadu has decided to stay and attend the course in Kuru, Jos.
Former president Olusegun Obasanjo’s government established the EFCC and the ICPC .
�Many people are not getting the basis of what is happening�, the source said.
�They are attributing the recent redeployment of Ribadu to the battles with some state governors. It depends on how one views it, but it might not entirely be so. The interesting thing is that the Presidency knows a few things about how the elections were won and they certainly do not need more enemies now that nobody including the President is sure of election tribunals.
A few things cropped up and some highly placed people in government advised that it was foolish to go into battle with those you may need if the tribunals come out with shocking verdicts. This is why some governors would no longer be arraigned and this is largely why Ribadu has been asked to go on study leave. They told him he would return to the job, but he knows he is out and not coming back. He is taking it with philosophical calmness.
Nuhu Ribadu regrets one thing
Interestingly, it is not his removal from office as head of the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission, EFCC.
When Mike Okiro, the Inspector General of Police, announced that the anti corruption czar was going on a study course to Kuru for one year, the nation was stunned. How could that have happened?. The government of President Umaru Yar�Adua had repeatedly voiced their determination to even pursue anti corruption campaign more vigorously than their predecessors.
But some of their actions especially some decisions of the Attorney General of the Federation, Mike Andoakaa betrayed government�s seeming avowed condemnation of corruption especially in high quarters of government.
And in the battle to escape from the searchlight of EFCC were some former state governors who had been accused of looting their state treasuries dry. Some of these governors have already been charged to court and some were to be arrested and arraigned before the courts before end of last year. We have it on good authority that the three former governors who were to be nabbed before the end of last year may continue to enjoy their cherished freedom. The latest developments in the Aso Rock, we gathered, do not favour the arraignment of the three governors.
Many have called the government of Umar Yar�Adua names for paying lip service to the anti corruption campaigns. And they cite the removal of Nuhu Ribadu as a sure indication of government�s lukewarm attitude to the corruption problems in Nigeria aside the long time messy relationship between the office of the AGF and that of chairman of the EFCC.
Former President Olusegun Obasanjo�s government established the EFCC and ICPC, another anti-corruption commission. The commission went to work and in short time gained popularity even as it was, sometimes, rightly accused of pursuing the agenda of President Obasanjo who was visibly employing all resources to run down political opponents.
But EFCC was doing some pretty good jobs even if some of their actions appeared politically influenced. And they had the backing of the Obasanjo government. They all worked together to shape the leadership of the ruling party and to a large extent the government that succeeded that of Obasanjo. Some of the governors who are now in the bad books of the EFCC worked tirelessly to ensure that Yar�Adua emerged the President. They worked with former President Obasanjo and the EFCC to transform Yar�Adua to the Aso Rock. So, where did it go wrong that some of them became targets of the same EFCC?
We probed deep into this and got some strong feelers from those at the centre of the recent happenings which have seen the police sending Ribadu out for office for a study leave.
�Many people are not getting the basis of what is happening right,� our Abuja source started.
�They are attributing the recent redeployment of Ribadu to the battles with some state governors. It depends on how one views it but it might not entirely be so. The interesting thing is that the Presidency knows a few things about how the elections were won and they certainly do not need more enemies now that nobody including the President is sure of election tribunals.
A few things cropped up and some highly placed people in government advised that it was foolish to go into battle with those you may need if the tribunals come out with shocking verdicts. This is why some governors would no longer be arraigned and this is largely why Ribadu has been asked to go on sturdy leave. They told him he would return to the job but he knows he is out and not coming back. He is taking it with philosophical calmness. He really feels good especially with the overwhelming media support and tremendous concern of Nigerians. He feels he is leaving when the ovation is loudest. People think he is down. But Ribadu has been feeling good and he would attend the course in Kuru. Yes, he once felt like resigning from the Police, but he has since changed his mind and would attend the course.�
So where did things go wrong between the parties that worked for President Yar�Adua?
Ribadu once found out that a former governor and a former aid of President Obasanjo had hand in the later reversed government decision to compel EFCC seek approval from AGF before prosecuting anybody. Again, EFCC was to be under the AGF. When the nation cried blue murder, the Presidency quickly reversed this but Ribadu found out those behind it and one of the governors he had actually not concentrated on was among. He later turned his search light on him and that was the genesis of the biggest case for which many now conclude has consumed him. But it is not totally so. He is feeling good.
The only thing he regrets is when President Yar�Adua compelled him to reject a United Nations job. When the President visited USA, he was told about the offer to Nuhu Ribadu who had impressed the world. He was offered the post of Deputy Secretary General of the United Nations. President Yar�Adua asked him to reject it as he wanted him to stay around and help him clean up Nigeria. Ribadu promptly rejected the job and chose to serve his fatherland, Nigeria. But I think he should know better now about ceasing opportunities only one cannot fault him for choosing to serve his country. If he knew things would turn out this way, he would have taken the job and become more internationally acclaimed.
When the issue of a possible nullification of the presidential elections came up and the roles some of the former governors could play in getting Yar ‘Adua elected dawned on the authorities it was agreed in high quarters that it was better to scheme Ribadu out than to tell him to tarry awhile over these governors. The fear was that it could leak out.
Again, President Yar Adua had actually given him the go-ahead to prosecute anybody who could be liable. Reversing that due to developments would not be decent on the part of the President. To send Ribadu on study leave seemed a better option.
Profile of Mallam Nuhu Ribadu
Nuhu Ribadu was born on November 11, 1960. He studied law at the Ahmadu Bello University Zaria between 1980 and 1983 and was called to the Nigerian bar in 1984.
He went back to the same university to earn a Master of law degree. He had served as head of the legal and prosecution department of the Nigeria Police before moving to the EFCC. Before his appointment as chairman of the EFCC in 2003, Ribadu was a Chief Superintend of Police (CSP).
He was promoted to the rank of Commissioner doing only short periods on the ranks of Assistant and Deputy Commissioner of Police. His initial four-year tenure expired in 2007, but former President Olusegun Obasanjo renewed his stay for another four year. Ribadu was also promoted to the rank of Assistant Inspector General of Police. His renewed tenure was expected to end by April 8, 2011.
Circumstance surrounding his exit
Although Ribadu is an Assistant Inspector General of Police, the EFCC Act of 2004, configured the commission to operate outside the police command structure. Section 3(2) of the Act specifically states that the chairman can only be removed by the President for under-performance or issues that border on permanent disability and mental incapacitation. If the EFCC were under the police command structure it would have been perhaps difficult for the commission to move against former police Inspector General, Tafa Balogun. The former IG was forced out in January 2005. He was arrested in March and immediately put on trial on charges of corruption. He was convicted and sentenced to six months in prison.
Cases he has won and arrests so far made
Some of the allegations levelled against Ribadu particularly by the political class in his fight against corruption were that, he under former President Obassanjo was in control of all variables. His methods included arm-twisting the state legislatures into imitating impeachment proceedings against targeted governors. His first victim was the former governor of Bayelsa state and self-styled governor-general of the Ijaw Nation, Diepreye Solomon Peter Alamieyeseigha.
Others ex-governors that have been arrested and currently been prosecuted by the EFCC include Joshua Dariye, Chimaroke Nnamani, Saminu Turaki now both sitting senators of the Federal Republic of Nigeria, Orji Kalu, Jolly Nyame and Ayo Fayose.
The list also include another big fish, James Ibori, former governor of oil rich Delta State, who was arrested on the 12 of December 2007 at the premises of the Kwara State Liaison Office in Abuja. The ex-governor was arraigned on the 13th of December 2007, first on a 29 count charge in a Kaduna Federal High Court, but currently been charged on 103 count charge. Justice Mohammed Shaibu declined bail for the former governor and ordered that he be remanded in prison custody.
Situation at the anti graft agency
Ever since the confirmation by the Inspector General of Police, Mike Okiro that the EFCC chairman, Mallam Nuhu Ribadu was proceeding on a one-year study leave to Kuru, a development most critics viewed as an endorsement by President Umaru Musa Yar’Adua for the removal of the chairman, the decision has taken a massive toll on the operations of the commission.
Vanguard investigation indicated that the top management of the anti graft agency are in a panicky mood as they fear that the action of government is a script doctored by some powerful hawks who are against the present campaign to have them pay for the crime they had committed against their states.