I’ll be blunt: this government has not given the former chairman of the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission, Mallam Nuhu Ribadu, his deserved respect and honour. Regardless of the grouses some of us nursed against his style while he reigned as the czar of the anti-graft body, he remains a distinguished police officer.
My worry has nothing to do with the politics surrounding last Tuesday’s announcement of his demotion from the rank of an Assistant Inspector General to that of a Deputy Commissioner of Police. It has to do with our queer way of rewarding those who commit their lives to doing that which is right at all times.
By every standard, Ribadu is not a perfect human being, but he rightly belongs to the category of Nigerians that should be treated with utmost respect. He does not deserve to be nailed on the barn door and left in the sun to dry.
Somehow, that is exactly what the President Umaru Musa Yar’Adua (as he then was) administration is doing—it is kicking Ribadu in the groin and, at the same time, asking him to ignore the pain. How callous! When, early this year, Azubuike Ishiekwene, Executive Director Publications (as he then was), in The PUNCH stable came out with a book detailing Ribadu’s travails at the hands of the powerful forces attempting to muzzle the anti-corruption campaign and get the lawyer turned crack police officer off the swinging chair of the EFCC, I had dismissed it as a needless cry.
My argument then was (and still is) that the operations of the EFCC should not be tied to the apron strings of one man. I had also poked fun at those who expressed fears over Ribadu’s selection for a capacity building course at the National Institute of Policy and Strategic Studies, Kuru, Plateau State. By the way, I still hold firmly to this belief.
In what has turned out to be a blind trust in the ability of Mr. Yar’Adua to walk his talk about fighting corruption and caging the rampaging wolves in the system, I said it was not only patently disingenuous but also jejune for anybody to “gloat that Ribadu’s nine-month stint at the NIPSS could spell the death knell for the fight against corruption or that it was designed as an exit point for a man who remains a shining symbol of hope in a country where leadership is corrosively corrupt.” Well, I eat my words.
I was wrong on one point. It is clear to me now that Ribadu’s exit and subsequent humiliation was choreographed from the top and the script handed to hirelings to execute! It is not enough for the Police Service Commission to include 139 other names, including the late Haz Iwendi, a most distinguished gentleman, on the list of demoted officers. And I do not buy the argument that Ribadu was not the target of the exercise.
It is even curious that the PSC has promised a post-humous elevation for Iwendi after publicly downgrading a man who died in active service and buried with full honours as Commissioner of Police.
Is the PSC expecting Iwendi’s family to be gratified by the news of a sudden demotion of the rank of its late breadwinner and a ridiculous elevation to a rank that he was last addressed with on earth? It’s a clear case of ripping a man naked in public and covering him with an expensive robe thereafter.
What a wicked insensitivity! He might have been passionate about his job but, like I once wrote, Nuhu Ribadu overreached himself in many ways just like his bosom friend, Mallam Nasir el-Rufai. That was why I never flinched in condemning him for turning into a monster in an attempt to nail the corrupt elements in the system.
That mortal affliction reached its zenith when Obasanjo deployed him as his rabid attack dog ferreting for incriminating evidence against former Vice President Atiku Abubakar. He trampled on people’s rights and, occasionally, spoke like the demi-god that had Ribadu’s balls at Aso Rock. That was bad.
He did many other condemnable things which had been documented. For example, he made a song and dance of the arrest and prosecution of corrupt governors and, in a show of double standard, discreetly withdrew and resold the two hundred million shares his boss’ firm bought in Transcorp.
He dehumanized notable personalities allegedly involved in corrupt practices and trampled on the rule of law and due process. And he is yet to explain how some known crooks, including close aides to the former president, escaped the searchlight of his agency.
Today, these persons strut the streets insulting our sensibilities with their sudden wealth. But beyond that, Ribadu is an icon that should not be allowed to be rubbished by cheap politics. He it was who put his precious life on the line, battling the powerful forces that daily raid our collective inheritance with impunity. If he got promoted rapidly in the police force, it wouldn’t be because he influenced such promotions.
He was simply good at his job and those who demoted him cannot deny that fact. Some of these facts are contained in Azu’s book where he states that: “From 419 kingpins to ‘yahoo’ fraudsters and political bigwigs, and from ranking police officers to retired generals, Ribadu has stepped on many powerful toes. Out of the 400 or more of its cases that are in court, the EFCC has secured over 120 convictions, including that of a former IG and a former state governor.
The agency has helped to recover over $5 billion in four years.” Azu’s book titled ‘The Trial of Nuhu Ribadu’ which, I must point out, is essentially pro-Ribadu, also reminds us that the former AIG initiated the “investigations that led to the smashing of the Emmanuel Nwude case—the biggest 419 case in history.” And these fine points come to mind each time I think about the sacrilege of last Tuesday by the Mr. Parry Osayande-led PSC.
The commission’s argument that the advancement of the affected officers violated stipulated criteria simply cannot wash. It is also doubtful if the PSC can push to a logical conclusion its veiled yet silly excuse that Ribadu does not qualify to be selected for accelerated promotion based on its “special” criteria which stipulate, among other things, that the officer must have a record of exceptional performance; must have displayed exceptional act of gallantry and bravery outside the routine police duties.
The point is simple: if Ribadu’s activities in the EFCC have been found to fall short of the stated criteria, then only someone from outer space stands a chance of getting accelerated promotion in the Nigeria Police Force! The demotion of Ribadu, if I must add, will serve as a major source of de-motivation for younger police officers who once saw him as a hero.
And I assure you such young officers are many. You can only imagine their collective disappointment with the Nigerian system. It is a big shame that heroes don’t live here anymore. It would have been better if Ribadu had been asked to resign as AIG with full honours and move on to other things if the tin gods that want him out are not up to a needless mischief.
But because it is a season of long knives out there, common sense has taken a flight and the nation has been, once again, exposed to international ridicule. This is not just about Ribadu. It is about the wrong signal that we may be sending to the international community that, when it comes to fighting corruption, we simply do not have the guts to walk the talk.
And that is the real shame in all this! And now, August 23, 2014 on Knucklehead… I wonder if I had not made a grave error in placing all my cards on the table and vouching for a man that was merely unfolding in a country in dire search for a true hero. No, this is not just a sudden burst of outrage against Ribadu because he has decided to move to a camp where his bread will surely be buttered.
Even when he had joined the Action Congress of Nigeria and later emerged the party’s presidential candidate, some of us had wondered if that was not a perfect example of marriage of strange bedfellows. There was just something not right about this man jumping into the murky waters of politics, warts and all. He looked too clean, too decent, too aloof and too urbane for that kind of gang. So we thought. Well, it turned out that we were wrong all the time. Ribadu is right.
He is, like the rest of us, talking from both sides of the mouth, all noise without rhythm. He must have realised time was running out and he couldn’t beat them. The only available option is to join them. And that was exactly what happened.
He owes no one, not even himself, any excuse for opting to defect to the Peoples Democratic Party in “pursuit of a good cause and never out of any selfish interests as portrayed by a section.” Just this unsolicited advice for a man who has decided to throw all away on the altar of political expediency: Instead of thanking us, his admirers, for “bearing with me on this decision, and for those who have been in solidarity with my struggles and still giving me the benefits of the doubt, I’m most grateful.
I’ll never let you down,” he should have simply explained off his fresh romance with those that hounded him into professional and political irrelevance in 2008 on the tested saying that, in politics, there are no permanent enemies but permanent interests. That’s all! It’s not just the new face of politics in Nigeria. It has always been the only face of political prostitution that has left us in a quagmire. There are no heroes. It’s just a jungle of pretenders!
