There cannot be serious and objective analysis of this lingering Ribadu question until the cannon sized press bombardment ceases or slows down at the very least. Clearly there is anger in the Press. That an unhealthy Government, vigorously protected from proper scrutiny has suddenly engaged its strange benefactor in a meaningless encounter it can never win makes serious case for critics. Even if its illness and legitimacy were not in dispute the benefit of confrontation is suspect and certainty of danger assured.
The closure of Channels Television, the incarceration of Blog activists, the arrest of publishers in Abuja and the contempt for press rights to enquire into his activities in the Saudi Emirate are provocations enough for the press to bring out the big guns. That it lacks insight and needs self examination are really laid bare by the many accidents it recklessly gets involved in with all segments of society convinced of its weakness yet sympathetic to the circumstances of the fraud of its birth. Nuhu Ribadu, that one with a strong nose for opportunity and a powerful gift for emotional arousal has latched on to these weaknesses like a lice clings to dirty hair. He has engaged deliberately in a game of confusion, so far favourable to him. And if the Press appears to need his case to fire their weapons, he obviously understands the sentiments enough to give them screaming headlines in exchange.
Now, it is all noise and attention to the nucleus of those issues critical to the people’s money beg for attention. Issues of corruption, building and sustaining the chromosomes of due process and construction and supporting institutions of law and conventions are lying down waiting for their turn. Right now, the process gathers momentum to promote the majesty of a radical individual given to self aggrandizement. The press in collaboration with Human Rights activists and many high net worth intellectuals and opinion leaders have successfully convinced all around that Government must be caged. That is all right for a Government out of control. They have resolved however that Ribadu is a great fuel to fire the machine of that propaganda. And that is the problem. Ironically, Nuhu Ribadu himself cannot filter out his relevance to the moment and determine the irrelevance of his present position to the mood of the times. When the noise is revved up therefore, the poor believe a hero of anti corruption is harassed; the press has been very helpful in pushing this argument. Ribadu believes he is above the law and too senior to stand at attention in the presence of his Inspector General. That is why he heads catastrophically towards accidents without a fallback position. He thinks the noice of the people is enough to protect his foolishness from the calculation of a traditional establishment like the Police Force. He who builds on hopes of the peoples support without adequate preparation for disappointment builds on quicksand. You do not undermine traditional authority without consequences. You therefore either prepare for combat or pray for accidents to happen to your adversary. The Authorities see a renegade, a rogue police gone berserk and almost impossible to manage. And they are determined to put him where he will roast so others will not even think of similar adventure in the future. Now the position of the corrupt but powerful elements is even more disturbing. They stand solidly side by side with arms wrapped around the current men in uniform; EFCC and Government all sworn to see this young man who oppressed them go to jail. They colour the whole argument in deep red. And that is what decides the position of decent people in this battle. With looters walking in and out of Aso Rock like a supermarket , Government will surely lose the moral battle even as they are assured of final victory in the war to be determined by coercion. Only Government can prevail in situations where coercion is boss.
A government that overtly protects corrupt friends cannot claim to be fighting crime. Nigerians may be poor but nobody ever said they were stupid. They see too many contradictions in this fight against corruption. All former allegedly corrupt looters of the South South, former Chief Executives flew into Abuja on the day of handover in April. They have berthed permanently in the Federal Capital City, where their deprived citizens watching Television see them cavorting with Mister President and attending state functions in Aso Rock. Tell me which former South South Governor can boldly go home to pick up his traditional uniform to attend royal weddings in his villages. Our citizens are baffled that the Attorney General writes letters to London to help a former Governor running from the metropolitan police go free preferably with all his ill gotten loot. How come, they wonder, that all the petitions on NNPC and other lucrative ministries are attended to only by archive clerks. The EFCC thinks those large looters in Abuja are exempt from investigation and prosecution. And this makes Nigerians believe that all this Champaign popping parties that corrupt Governors are staging in Dubai with active assistance of the best pimps in the business only serves to mock us and ridicule our sense of relevance to project Nigeria.
The Police and EFCC appear to be collaborating to get Ribadu down to his former office for some chat. If what they claim is true, they have meticulously followed due process. EFCC directed a letter to the IG which he minuted on for onward transport to Ribadu at Kuru. But from what we gather, instead of boarding the next available vehicle for Abuja, he quickly ran to the court for protection against any question and answer session. Now, that is what the Police claims. If this is true, the people must ask the anti corruption Caesar why he should be afraid to answer summons from the organization he ran for more than four years. Why should he be afraid if his hands are clean? The EFCC c wants Ribadu to give them the file on 31 Governors which they claim he has hidden from the law. If this is true, the man must let us all know why he can keep these heavy files in his own cabinet when they belong to Government. Why can it not be suggested that blackmailing these Governors is potentially profitable for him, Now they claim he bought a 350 million Abuja mansion in Maitama for a meager 40 million Naira, a sum not enough to purchase iron rods. There are also allegations of mansions in America and some Arabian palace in the Dubai Emirate. Now even when we guess these may be too scandalous for a crime fighter, he still must write statements on some EFCC sheet and be questioned like every citizen as he had himself done when he was on the other side. We must know how his father in law was entitled to be offered EFCC official residence to buy when the retired Professor is not a policeman. He must answer in the statement sheet; how he came to be entitled to live there after the poor Professor paid “through Bank loans” He must tell us how much the Professor earns to be paying back this loan as obviously he has no rental income from this property, having dashed the mansion to Ribadu and his daughter. We need to be assured that the very same 419 tricks Ribadu fought against are not being adopted to con Nigerians. How will he ultimately explain to Nigerians, the 40 million paid for a voluminous edifice in a most opulent region of Abuja, precisely Maitama when he would be the first to do a proper costing were a 419 Eze ego be a subject of this transaction. The sum of 40 million will not even buy the iron rods required to put up the palace on that land. Such a servant of the public cannot pass for an angel come to earth to cleanse the World.
It has often been preached by those with the gift of insight that Building institutions and protecting them is the only way to grow a Nation. If therefore a young officer believes he has grown too tall on the parade field to salute his Inspector General and match to the music on the parade ground, that Institution has a duty to prevent infection of its ranks by rebels given to challenging the very documents they signed on in the application form to Police College. And this is critical to corporate governance. None of us in charge of running things even in civil society will permit rebellion against our authority. I am happy that the Police authorities have followed due process even in processing their anger through the Police Service Commission. That is as it should be.
For us all with adequate stake in this project of fighting corruption, Ribadu must go to EFCC, write his statements, be questioned through the processes he established in that organization and if his explanations are found inadequate, the court must be handed the files for further action. The law should then be applied to him as it would to any one of us. But we must all resolve to be objective bystanders, ready to cry foul if his rights are threatened in any way. And he should be brave enough to stand oppression and be our Mandela. God knows we desperately needs a hero. We must watch and be ready to shout. That should be our role until all this mess is cleared up.
Francis Ojo
[email protected]
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