Can Nuhu Ribadu nail them?
By Banji Ojewale,
Head, Covers & Investigations
Nuhu Ribadu, youthful chairman of the
Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC), turned out the cynosure of
media attention on the second day of the Nigeria Bar Association (NBA)
conference in Abuja early last week. He scored a double feat: putting up a
surprise appearance and issuing even more startling statements.
It was a needful presence, for being a
lawyer, Ribadu had to be part of a historic gathering of fellow professionals,
upon whom the society now looks for clarity and direction as we face a haze of
challenges in nation-building. He joined other celebrities in saving the event
from being a drab affair.
Chief Justice Mohammed Uwais was there to
denounce the “concentration of too much power” in the corridors of
the executive arm of government. President Olusegun Obasanjo was represented by
Justice Minister and Attorney-General Akinlolu Olujinmi. His speech descended
heavily on the NBA, accusing it of turning itself into an opposition party and
allying with the Nigeria Labour Congress (NLC) over the latter’s
perennial feud with government.
Labour was also there in the person of the
diminutive but ubiquitous Adams Oshiomhole, the NLC president. He drew a
prolonged applause when he noted that the lawyers’ body is the de
facto
opposition party and National Assembly, those institutions, according to him,
having abandoned their constitutional responsibilities.
Nuhu Ribadu didn’t strike a similar
upbeat tune. He presented disturbing statistics on the state of corruption in
Nigeria that suggested that the war on the evil is not being won.
Nigeria, the EFCC boss said, spends a
staggering N250billion annually on law-enforcement agencies including the
judiciary. But this hasn’t led to the deserved positive impact in the
security system and judicial procedures, he claimed.
He is, of course, worried that despite this
huge outlay “no person is serving a jail term for corruption. No person
has even been convicted under the 1995 Money Laundering Act. No person is
serving a jail term for 419 under the Advance Fee Fraud Act, 1995”.
Where does he place the blame for this
distortion and imbalance between what the state puts in to arrest corruption
and the reality of a lack of culprits? Ribadu sees corruption at work.
“In some cases”, he laments, “law enforcement agencies were
found to be the principal perpetrators of the crimes… law enforcement
agents that are supposed to be the custodians of the law and order are the
worst culprits”.
He has a bagful of attendant scoundrels.
These are constitutional constraints, which he claims are sometimes too
protective of the accused persons on trial. There is also the attitude of some
defence counsel in stalling trials when defending clients in cases prosecuted
by EFCC. According to Ribadu, the lawyers’ action “has brought our
profession under justifiable suspicion”.
“It’s like Malam Ribadu is
trying to pass the buck”, says Ibrahim Salami, president of Moral
Majority, Lagos-based watchdog on transparency in government and public office
holders. “Is he trying to absolve himself and his commission of charges
of incompetence and wasteful spending?”
Ribadu’s colleagues in the profession
Maceu Macaulay agrees that the figure quoted by the EFCC boss is rather
enormous. He says, however, that this is no reason for it to create cynics out
of observers. “I think we should commend Ribadu for opening up on his
frustration at a system that allows so much to be spent and yet have nothing to
show for it”.
Still, it amounts to a big credibility
gaffe for a government pegged on transparency and an anti-corruption
undertaking to lack a handful of convicted persons in its net despite all the
resources sunk unto fishing for them. The problem is no more the volume of
money spent but the absence of results.
“It is a situation worth lamenting”,
says James Ocholi, a civil servant from Lokoja. He wants Ribadu to go beyond
weeping. “He can resolve the riddle he has identified by also naming the
law enforcement agents standing as the protectors of the corrupt
persons”.
Ibrahim Salami told Daily Independent: “Ribadu
could prove he’s up to the task only if he improves on Obasanjo’s
style by successfully prosecuting corrupt officials, not minding whose ox is
gored. It’s what the president has shied away from”.
