09 Jan 2008 |
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Why Ribadu was kicked out of EFCC
By Emmanuel Franklyne Ogbunwezeh On the shores of utopia, the prize for excellence is approbation; not reproach. Here, the reward for a job well done is recognition, support, and a higher pedestal upon which to repeat the feat earlier achieved, on a grander scale. It is not the sack. In this clime, the reward for a job well done is never the timid heckles of emasculated cowards; content in spending their insignificant lives in anonymous non-existence, criticizing those who dared challenge existence to yield to their vision. Neither is it the neurotic insecurities and impious envy of visionless power, which sees an affront to its insecure foundations, in every progress made by another. In utopia, the excellent are powered by their excellence, into our choicest esteem. They inhabit our halls of fame. They are eternal signs that the road to excellence is open to anyone who aspires for it. They are epic reminders that there are no speed limits on the road to excellence. This is because excellence by a strange alchemy constitutes its own recompense. But most unfortunately, that is in utopia; an island of non-existence, where milk and honey actually flow. In the halls of reality, excellence has one fault. It wants the best. It is forever ready to brook the frown of the rich and powerful to discharge its duties. It is ready to shake the stars and quake the universe to genuflect to its legitimate dreams. It is ready to disregard dangers to life and limb in pursuit of his aspiration. Here, danger knows full well that he is more dangerous than he. The lewd money and extravagant indiscretions of the criminal-rich cannot purchase his resolve. He bluntly refuses to sully his reputation. Excellence may be poor in materials, but rich in good moral odour. And in the halls of mediocrity, this is a grievous fault. And grievously most times, must excellence pay for it. Instead of mediocrity being inspired to abdicate its unholy pedestals and go for the stars; or criminality stirred to mend its prodigal ways, and/ or remove its fangs from the bleeding torsos of our commonweal; mediocrity colludes with criminality to conspire against excellence. This accounts for why the Shakespearean Cesar must die at the hands of dishonest mediocrity, shortly after the refulgence of his excellent ways announced to danger in no clear terms that “Cesar is more dangerous than he” and cannot be held back by fear, from reaching the zenith of his goals for Rome. Scheming against excellence was equally the reason, which gave rise to one of the most notorious, and the most ideologically amorphous conspiracies of all times. This was the conspiracy hatched by the armada of crime and concentrated hate, against the Christ, by a band of characterless hypocrites, a conglomerate of criminal opportunists, religious profiteers, a decadent priestly caste of a religion that was daily emplacing unbearable burdens of sorrow, fear and ignorance on the masses, while feeding its crop of inner men, fat on the sweat, tears, sorrows and burdens of the poor. Ordinarily, most of the parties represented in the conspiracy on that AD 33 day, were sworn ideological and factual enemies, who can never agree on a point. The Pharisee would rather see a Sadducee burning in some eternal hell created by his hate, than to sit down with him to a discourse or reach a consensus on any issue. But since money and power are like cadaver, which convokes the presence of carrions and beasts of every land and clime; they converged to scheme against a guy, whose identikit reads like that of a popular, itinerant, non-establishment guy, whom the crowds love to conglomerate around. And who peddles hope, forgiveness and an abundance of the opposite of what the establishment and mainline guys preach. The crude, opinionated carpenter from an insignificant Galilean town was cresting the waves of popularity among the local peasants. He sold hope, love and liberation from yokes and burdens; values desperately needed by the masses being diminished and suffocated by stagnant ritualism and obscene hypocrisy. This guy confronted the establishment and unveiled the sepulchral rottenness of its pretences. To crown his disdain for establishment, Jesus came into their backyard and messed with their money. On that Sunday morning of Palms and shouts; he trumped all the expectations of an establishment fossilized in tunnel vision. He made all the ancient prophesies guarded by the establishment, come alive in him. Riding a colt as prophesied of the messiah, he approached the temple to the tumultuous welcome of the crowds, who amid pomp and pageantry hailed him as King. On dismounting his vehicle at the temple precincts, he ascended into what was ideally designated a house prayer to see it be converted into a den of robbers. He noticed that the priests and custodians of the temple have leased out the sanctuary to their associates as the place to exchange money and cheat the pilgrims in the name of God. The rest they say is history. But excellence for the ideal gravitated with righteous anger led Christ into messing with the money and consequently the power of the elitist rogues of his day, whose joy is to see the majority in poverty, pain and sorrow. The Son of God who was acclaimed as the Prince of peace, made whips out of ropes and fought on the temple precincts for his beliefs and ideals. He kicked, clawed and pined to kick out the rogues abusing the people and selling them ritualistic dummies and abiding ignorance in the name of religion. Today, Malam Nuhu Ribadu may neither be a Christian or a saint, but his desire for excellence and his messing with the money and power base of rogues in high places is the reason why a man sitting on a stolen mandate decided to ease him off in deference to his friends and patrons, who with the power of stolen money, bought him the presidency, in one of the most fraudulent elections that humanity has seen in recent times. Ribadu’s avid desire to bring to justice the Grand Crooks of the Federal republic of Nigeria (GCFRs), the Mediocres on the Niger (MONs) placed him on course to clash with the consolidated citadels of brazen criminality spanning our government and political space. His incorruptibility convoked a conspiracy to sack him, in the highest echelons of power in Nigeria. Why are the Nigerian powerful afraid of Nuhu Ribadu? They are afraid because they are guilty. In my high school days, I read a novel by James Hadley Chase titled: “the guilty are afraid”. This title aptly describes the powerful men of Nigeria. Almost all of them are guilty of criminally defrauding our land of its future, its flavour, its glamour and its well-being. Almost all the governors and ministers that have held political offices in Nigeria are certified rogues of no mean standing. The commonweal meant nothing to their avarice. No treasury is too sacred for their looting. They invade sacred sanctuaries of the peoples’ trust and rape it beyond measure simply to appease their inordinate avarice. And these were the men that Ribadu was statutorily created to bring to book. Although the man who publicly empowered Ribadu worked behind the scenes to frustrate him and sabotage his mission; the guy needed the skill of a serpent to survive, and the innocence of a dove to remain relevant. It was no secret that Obasanjo never wanted Ribadu and the anti-corruption campaign to succeed. He was too corrupt to entertain such illusions. And he spared no effort in letting Ribadu grope in the dark, when the searchlight shifts to Obasanjo’s turf or that of his “sacred cows”. This explains why the Vincent Azie’s report detailing the stinking morass of financial impropriety and corruption that was Obasanjo’s presidency was not weighty enough to attract the investigations of EFCC. This is equally the reason why Olabode George and the atrocious criminality with, which he spanned the Nigerian Ports Authority never came under EFCC searchlight. We need not talk about Tony Anenih’s Works ministry and the 300billion naira allocated to roads rehabilitation in Nigeria, which developed wings and disappeared without anyone accounting for it. Anenih was by-passed because he helped Obasanjo steal the 2003 elections. So, he was not kosher for EFCC. What about the Oil ministry under Obasanjo, which has been described as the vortex and cesspool of unbelievable corruption? Need we mention the PDTF saga that netted an agent and allowed his principal to walk? The EFCC was not allowed to pry that malodorous clam open because Obasanjo happens to be the principal suspect here. What about Andy Ubah’s money laundry using the Presidential jet? He was Obasanjo’s houseboy, and hence immune from EFCC’s investigations. The examples are legion buttressing the fact that Obasanjo heaped a sack of salt on Ribadu and sent the rains after him to ensure that he is thoroughly drenched and unable to deliver his cargo at its destination. But in spite of the onerous hurdles on his way, Ribadu was able to skilfully navigate the political minefields littering his path, to position EFCC into an instrument that strikes fear in the hearts of political crooks, whose bounden duty is to make Nigeria a decadent socio-pathology. The timid outcry greeting this terrible shove pushes the conclusions that Nigerians are genetically programmed to celebrate mediocrity. Nothing impresses this on the mind more than the way we award our national merit awards. A scroll down the names on our honours list reads like a who-is-who in filth, gangsterism, underachievement and political prostitution, with a few sprinklings of honourable men. Even Tafa Balogun, a thief of infinite proportions was at a point given a national merit award. This portrays either that our methods of giving out awards is so defective as to allow crooks passage into our rolls of honour, while excluding real achievements; or that achievements is defined differently in Nigeria. But the most urgent question remains:
Can we render public reasons for the sack of Nuhu Ribadu? Can Umaru Yar Adua in all honesty say that he redeployed this young man for the good of the Nigerian nation? Can the illegitimate government in Abuja claim to have acted in good faith; in consonance with the rigorous demands of social justice, equity and good conscience, in wresting a courageous man from his office, and pushing him to the peripheries of irrelevance, in order to protect its criminal patrons? Yar Adua may think that Nigerians are fools. He should know that we are aware of his illegitimacy. It is not a secret that he is a beneficiary of political simony perpetrated by James Ibori and the likes, using funds stolen from the Nigerian people. And if he thinks that he can protect the Iboris, Iyabo- Obasanjo Bellos, Peter Odilis, Lucky Igbinedions, Chimaroke Nnamanis, the Andy Ubahs, and all those thieving governors he promised to protect in exchange for their support; then he should realise that nothing can stop an idea whose time has come. EFCC is an idea whose time has come. Obasanjo, who is a very corrupt man, may have unwitting let the genie out of the bottle. Yar Adua should know that this genie is not going back to that bottle, no matter how hard he tries. Aaonandaka who has proven himself more in league with the rogues, than law abiding Nigerians, should be made to realise that Nigerians are not sold on his wooden apologetics on behalf of roguery. That guy should be given the boot. His indiscretion has disqualified him from holding any office of public trust. A man who supports rogues is a crook. The facts are bare. Ribadu is not been shoved aside to fulfil some pristine requirements of vocational training. He is being kicked to appease some gods and goddesses of corruption in high places in Nigeria. Any attempt at refuting this fact should first address the question: Why ask Ribadu to go on training now that he has Ibori and some other high profile crooks in his crosshairs? Ibori was a financier of Yar Adua’s emergence as president. How would rational minds construe these circumstantial pieces of evidence? Is Yar Adua not really out to protect his friend, Mr. Ibori, by sacrificing Ribadu? In as much as there are no justifiably reasons to send Ribadu away from EFCC at the moment, my greatest fear is the threats to the life and limbs of this man. Ribadu pursuant to the demands of his duty and office rightly stepped on the toes of many powerful criminal blocs. And these are the same blocs that attempted to assassinate Dora Akunyili even in office. I wonder the plans they must be spinning at the moment to knock this guy off for good; and end the misery caused them by their apprehensions and dread of this man, who has arisen as a symbol that strikes terror in their hearts weaned on the suds of crime. Nigerians should hold Yar Adua responsible if anything happens to this young man, who in spite of overwhelming odds pitched against him, desired to do his duty well for the betterment of all Nigerians. Football coaches know one cardinal rule: You don’t change a winning team! Why would Yar Adua change a guy who is really bent on, and have shown sign of winning the war on corruption without good reasons? Is he ignorant of what even football coaches know? If he is so bovine and base in his ratiocinations, how can such a man be the president of a corrupt that has produced world class talents and brains? Or is he hell bent on crucifying reason in obeisance to mercenary considerations? Only Yar Adua can answer that question. But I am not ready to trust this president to come up with honest answers. His presidency was built on dishonesty. It is like expecting a good fruit from a bad tree. Those who deceive themselves that the president is a gentleman are not rewarded with the evidence to that effect. A gentleman can never allow himself be a fence in custody of stolen goods, and dispenses same under whatever pretext. Yar Adua is a product of the same cauldron of degenerative forces that has sired Nigeria’s decadent posture all these years. And a man can never be better than his genes, whether social or actual. Since the forces that conduced and worked for the emergence of Yar Adua was a thoroughly corrupt and diametrically compromised one, how could we expect Yar Adua to fight corruption? It will be fighting himself. And for Yar Adua to win the war on corruption will be for him to commit suicide. For him to throw his weight on this war, will be for him and his presidency to self-destruct, since the processes that brought him to power was the most flawed and the most corrupt of all electoral processes that Nigeria has seen, since the British started the process of election rigging in Nigeria in 1959. The facts are clear. This presidency is not a serious one. It is an ill will that bids Nigeria no good. Those who think that the argument is about the person of Ribadu are wilfully being blind to the fundamental realities on the ground. It is not about the person of Ribadu. It is about shoddiness in handling the affairs of state. It is about roguery, consolidated thievery and dishonesty at the highest level of government. The faceless cabal ruling Nigeria, whose puppet, Umaru Yar Adua is at the moment, can never allow the country wage a conscientious war against corruption. Corruption is the essence of their existence. For them to sit by and watch Ribadu mess up their game for them, would tantamount to inviting themselves to their own funeral. And they can never sit-by to see that happen. In their minds, Nigeria is their real estate; their property. And they are the only ones who can dispense, dispose, or devise it the way they want. Ordinary Nigerians count for nothing in their computations. And for Ribadu to ride on the side of the ordinary Nigerians to spoil the show for them is an intolerable nuisance, which they are willing and ready to terminate with unparalleled promptness. Andy Ubah, Chimaroke Nnamani, James Ibori, Iyabo-Obasanjo Bello, Igbinedion Lucky, even Goodluck Jonathan and his wife and all other thieves in our firmament, should all go home and rejoice. The wing of their nemesis has been clipped for the moment. Ribadu is out of their way. The war on corruption has been watered down. Yar Adua was never our messiah. He was never meant to be. Our place in the sun has once again been postponed. The forces of evil and regress have won the day once again. May the soul of Nigeria rest in peace.
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