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We agree that wherever there is a hue and cry of corrupti...Read the full article.

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Good timely suggestions
Over to you Nuhu .. please ensure that these are at least in place with in the EFCC frame work. It is about time EFCC rids itself from the GESTAPO tag as it is widely perceived

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Excellent and well thought out suggestions!

Eric please can you send this to EFCC? And if possible let's verify it got to Mallam Ribadu. Such fresh views and suggestions are invaluable and comes at a time when it's in dire need.

Thank you my brother.

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Hi

I completely agree with the suggestions raised in this artcle. I think the Nuhu will surely appreciate any contribution to hep him to fight this monster "corruption".

I will suggest we have EFCC list of wanted individuals with photographs and other personal details to help them to apprehend this fugitives on their website.

Baba Boys

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Excellent piece.
An additional safeguard against contamination and intimidation of the EFCC enforcement team by the rich and powerful would be a government guarantee of life salary and security for them.

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Thank you Eric. I am begining to think that there might be a light at the end of this tunnel afterall, considering how passionate we are about Nigeria, even though we often disagree it clear that an average Nigeria is passionate about his country, more than the country deserve from us. It was one of the American leaders that said "to make me love my country, my country must be lovely" though our country is not as lovely but still try very hard to embrace her. It will be nice if we can take a cue from people like Eric and make useful suggestions where we criticize, than wholesale condemnation. We will get there.

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As found at the EFCC website:
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IS EFCC BEING SELECTIVE?

By Ibrahim Balarabe
Public Affairs Unit EFCC

The ensuing argument making rounds around the country and even internationally that the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC) is being used by the Nigerian government to hunt down those opposed to its policies and leadership, is indeed a topic that should be of interest to any body interested in the fight against economic and financial crimes in our beloved country Nigeria.

However, the Establishment Act of the Commission that mandated it to exercise its enforcement powers in fighting economic and financial crimes and all its ramifications, is quite clear on the responsibilities expected of it and also has specified what roles the EFCC can play in the legal battle against all types of corruption, emanating either within or outside the country. Therefore mere coincidences in arrests, in my view, should not be a yardstick for measuring whether the Commission’s pendulum is swinging towards the side of the government or the powers that be.

Naturally human beings are expected to perceive things differently as psychologists kept on reminding us that it is nearly impossible for a group of persons to give same meanings to a particular occurrence or incident. It is on this note that I would like to comment on the argument as stated above whether the Commission is deliberatively involved in cases against alleged corrupt top government officials both serving and retired who happened to be in the bad books of the serving government.

One may not be surprised based on what has been happening in celebrated cases treated by the EFCC around the country, to hear various comments whether rightly or wrongly attributing the apprehension and or prosecution of some prominent Nigerians (in their hay days) to either because they had a problem with the powers that be, or simply because they were found wanting in their duties assigned to them while serving the governments of their days. What I mean to say here is that cases like those of the former Lagos state military governor, Major General Mohammed Buba Marwa and that of the former police boss Mr. Tafa Balogun have been interpreted differently by different persons.

For example, a friend of mine thinks that the case against Marwa was politically motivated due to the fact that the man has come out to declare his intention in contesting for the apex position in the country. However another friend of mine belonging to a different school of thought gave a completely different interpretation, saying that the man was arrested simply because he was seen as fighting the Vice President in the local politics of their home state, which is Adamawa. What ever interpretation one wishes to lean towards, it is clear that a disagreement exists as to the actual reason of arrest.

The issue of the convicted Balogun is more interesting as the man himself attributed his predicament to his refusal to promote the Executive Chairman of the EFCC Malam Nuhu Ribadu while serving under him as a police officer. Another reason for his arrest making rounds is that he had problems with the government but whatever other reasons one might give, the law has taken its cause and it is now no secret that Mr. Balogun got himself into trouble after a misunderstanding between him and his right hand man who eventually wrote a damning petition against him.

Anybody who cares to find out the way the Commission works can easily get answers from the EFCC Establishment Act of the year 2004 which as already stated, is the backbone of the mandate saddled on the commission. It is therefore obvious from the content of the Act that if anybody commits a crime covered by it, he or she will certainly be liable to investigation, arrest, and even prosecution. As the slogan of EFCC says ` nobody is above the law.’

Let us bring out some of the related cases that probably warrant the accusations labeled against the commission that it is playing politics when it comes to pursuing cases brought to it, one of which is that involving General Mohammed Buba Marwa. It is interesting to note that the case of General Marwa is a case that had been under investigation for some time and it was only when it became necessary to invite him for questioning that his story came to lime light. It is therefore somewhat coincidental that he was arrested after he showed interest in running for the presidency hence the question of being taken in because of political affiliation may not arise.

Furthermore the case of Mr. Bode George the one time NPA Chairman was spearheaded by the Federal Executive Council which ordered for probe into the matter. EFCC just happened to be heading the probe team with its members drawn from office of the Secretary to the Federal Government, Ministry of Finance, Office of the Head of Service and the Budget Monitoring and Price Intelligence Unit popularly referred to as the Due Process. The probe was ordered after an earlier administrative panel found gross financial recklessness in the running of the Authority; in fact what was most worrisome to the government was the huge debt running into billions of Naira which was discovered.

The arrest of one time minister Alhaji Bashir Dalhatu can be referred to as another case which had stirred some waters amongst the exponents of the Commission and those who feel belated by its action. While those exponents feel that the Commission was only executing its duties as specified by its establishment act, the other group feels that it was nothing but a vendetta against the man simply because he happened to be an in law to late former Head of State General Sani Abacha. The truth of the matter however is that the issue of Dalhatu’s arrest emanated from a petition filed in by a foreign business partner who felt he was short changed.

It is rather sad and unfortunate that the Commission finds itself on the defensive line because some of the people arrested while in the line of its duties, happened to be Politicians and their supporters who turned things upside down to defend their friends or benefactors. The vogue these days is to take refuge in the `Third Term’ issue as the reason for arrest by EFCC. Nigerians should be weary of this cheap blackmail by people of doubtful integrity.

In the end our plea to members of the public and indeed all Nigerians and fans of the Commission is to assist it in making its work easier through objective criticisms and at the same time, render tangible advices by what ever means, print or electronic. The Commission assures that serious advises will be taken on their merits, it also appreciate the immense burden of expectations from those who believe that there is a need for an overhaul of our decadent society in order to sanitize the financial and economic environment in our country. However EFCC is only three years by April 12 and despite its rather very young age, you will agree with me that it had achieved tremendous successes both at home and abroad.

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NPA Fraud: ‘We Have Commenced Criminal Investigations’

03.02.2007 Saturday, February 3, 2007

Is it true that Vice-President Atiku Abubakar facilitated your appointment as the chairman of the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission?


Ribadu (EFCC Chairman)

I saw it on Tuesday as well and I am a bit surprised even though he has been doing it for a while. He has said several things inaccurate about us and the relationship we had with him. I have never told him that, I have never. I mean, why should I ever tell him a thing like this? But then, somehow, unfortunately enough, the work we are doing deals with them, the politicians, and nothing is impossible. If a politician tells you good morning, go out and look at the sun. Honestly, I am serious. They do all sorts of things to ensure that they remain relevant. They will carry their own cross and fight their own battle to survive, including being very insensitive to issues involving others and their feelings. I have never told him anything like this. I have never. This is in addition to what he said about being the one who brought me to government. It’s so unfair and immodest. I am a Fulani man and we have honour, we have dignity. Even when you have done something for somebody, you do not talk about it, not to talk of when you have not done it at all.


I will tell you what really transpired between us or how I got into government. If there is one single person who could claim to have brought me into government, it is Kanu Agabi (SAN), the former Attoney-General and Minister of Justice who I worked with twice. First, when I was a member of the Failed Banks Tribunal in the 1990s during the (late General Sani) Abacha administration, he was an external solicitor who handled some of the cases. I related with him directly. Secondly, when he became Attorney-General after President Olusegun Obasanjo was elected in 1999, Kanu Agabi was the first Attorney-General Obasanjo appointed, then I was the one who handled the case of the Abachas. I was the one who brought (Major Hamza) Al-Mustapha and (General Ishaya) Bamaiyi to justice, I was the one who handled their cases. I charged them to court. I worked with him (Kanu). I also worked with him in the case of Salisu Buhari. You remember him? The former speaker (House of Representatives). I prosecuted Salisu Buhari. You see, I handled several cases like that. Then, I was in the police force. So, he saw in me what he considered was a fairly okay person.



He was the one, when this appointment was to be made, who took my name and went to the President and insisted that he had a good officer in me who he thought could do the work. And he is not from my place. He has never had any personal dealings with me. I was even out of the country at that time. So, he gave my name to the President. Many people objected to it. Several people in government. Some were even saying I was too young, others said I was too way down as an Assistant Commissioner of Police. They said the normal thing was to pick an Assistant Inspector General of Police. But unfortunately for them, there was no legal barrier to stop my appointment as the law did not stipulate the rank. It only states that you should be from a law enforcement agency to be appointed as the chairman of EFCC.



So, naturally, in this type of situation, there are bound to be some sort of resistance, which is normal. Then for Kanu Agabi to get support for what he wanted to do, I think, he went to the vice-president - you know we are from the same town - he said this is the young man I am trying to project as the one who can do the job. But some people are objecting, see if you can put in a word. Remember, I said I was out of the country then. So, I never approached him. And of course, when I came back, I faced the Senate. I was screened and I was cleared. I had never met the President then. But after my appointment, when I met him, he said, ‘Ah! look, this young man, what I have heard about you from uncountable number of people is amazing.’ And this means he sought opinions of different people and he said he heard encouraging remarks about me even from my own people and every other part of the country. But he also heard objections. That was what he told me. So, Kanu Agabi and my friend, who was then also working closely with the President, the late Mahmud Waziri (who died in the Bellview plane crash), who was my mate at the Ahmadu Bello University, Zaria, were people who knew me, thought I was good enough and continued to put pressure on me, saying this is a good job. Others contributed too. But I never went to the vice-president.



And naturally in government, especially in a democratic set up, when you are considered for an appointment, they normally ask political office holders from your own state for comments. I think that is the normal practice. So, in my own case, a lot of people said so many things. But if that is what Atiku Abubakar misconstrued to mean that he brought me into government, then I don’t know how he is right. He did not know when I went to read law and qualified as a lawyer. He did not know when I joined the police force and up till the time I ended up as the head of the Legal Department of the Nigeria Police Force in Abuja, all this while, he was not a party to the work I did in the Nigeria Police. I believe this is what qualified me to be appointed as the chairman of EFCC.



I worked with Kanu Agabi. If there is anyone who can claim to have brought me into government, may be it is Kanu Agabi. He is alive, please, ask him. I beg you to find out from him what really happened. I don’t think the vice-president knew at the time when my name was taken to the National Assembly, when I passed through all these things, for him to now claim that he brought me into government. Even among his own staff, I have friends who somehow put a word of support for me. Maybe, if they talk to him, I cannot rule out the possibility. But you cannot just, because when somebody was being appointed, you now say, ‘okay, this fellow is good,’ you now turn round to say you brought him in. I don’t know if that is right and I consider it really very absurd and I know, it is not right. So, for record purposes, it must be put straight. He did not bring me into government; he did not put me into the Nigeria Police Force; he did not train me as a lawyer; at the time when I was nominated and when the President was going to approve my name, it was not him, it was the former Attorney-General of the Federation who did it and he, as the Attorney-General, is legally responsible for such responsibility. He is alive. Please find out from Kanu. It is good that you can still find out from him. And I think it is immodest for someone to claim to have done what someone else did.



It was the same thing when he said he was the one who funded EFCC at the time. That is also not correct. What happened was that when we were appointed, we did not have anything, no resources. But we had some money, about N400million allocated to EFCC in 2003 alone. So, when we started working, I met my very good friend and my colleague, Nasir el-Rufai, who I knew even at the university and I like the way he was running the Bureau of Public Enterprises. I said this is somebody I can copy something from. I went to him. He was the one who gave me an office in the BPE. He gave me one single office, I sat with him, I explained to him. I said look, I think we can do something with this EFCC. My belief is that for you to start to do things properly and correctly in this country, to start changing things, you must first of all enforce the rule of law, establish transparency and accountability in governance. And that if you clean up, chances are that policies of government could work, including even the work you are doing. Therefore, this is what we can call the foundation for good governance. The challenges facing Nigeria require law enforcement to strengthen and correct things. Nothing can work unless you clean up, unless you sanitise. So, I sat down with him and we brainstormed and I told him the need to support an agency like the EFCC because it can simplify and make things possible. If you work very well and clean up, your policies would work and that is what really helped in changing so many sectors.



He agreed, he was very supportive, he was very enthusiastic. I did not get any money for two months after establishing EFCC. Not even one penny, not one kobo, from government. Even then, all the agencies were fighting us. All the security agencies, they were like fighting to survive, honestly. So, Nasir el-Rufai was the one who proposed and he said he was going to give us a loan of N200million, that is, half of our own budget then, anytime they release our money, we would repay the money. You know they were selling government property then and he said, instead of leaving it fallow in the bank, he can use it to support this kind of thing. I think he discussed that with the President, and he said, well, that is alright.



Then, the vice-president was the one supervising BPE at that time. He was the one overseeing BPE. So, El-Rufai would require his own approval for him to be able to support us. So, he wrote the vice-president, he said, please, can we help the EFCC? The work it is doing has direct link with what we are doing and so it would help strengthen those institutions that we are privatising. So, this is going to help us. But the vice-president, instead of approving N200million, he approved N100million only. We were given the N100million. That was the work we did, the first four or five months of the operations of the EFCC. When our budgetary allocation was given to us, we returned the N100million BPE lent us. That is all. So, I don’t know how he can claim to have funded us. He did not know it was el-Rufai, who initiated it. He wanted to give us N200million but Atiku reduced it to N100million and that is what happened. And I hope when he reads what I am saying now, he would come out to state exactly what happened.



You investigated the vice-president over corruption allegations and you returned a guilty verdict. But he has been winning in court. Do you believe that you did a shoddy job? What if he eventually becomes president, how would you feel?

First of all, I don’t believe we did a shoddy job. We always do our work professionally and we are guided by what is right. We do it within the ambit and permission of the law. We do things professionally and correctly. The case we have, we believe, is good enough to stand the test of prosecution. We have already gone to the Code of Conduct Tribunal and the court ruled that he had a case to answer. And we are before the Senate to which we also made representation. So, let’s wait and see what they would do.



But for now, he enjoys immunity. We cannot prosecute him because he enjoys immunity from prosecution. But the moment that immunity is removed, then, of course, he would stand prosecution and let us see whether the work we have done is proper or not. Let us just wait and see. But I can assure you, we have done a professional work, not only here in Nigeria, but also at the international level. On this investigation, the Federal Bureau of Investigation made a request. They have done their own part of the investigation. The investigation we did, they have seen it. Our standard is very high. We work professionally and honestly.



On the issue of if he becomes the president, I have done what is right, I have done what is expected of me, I swore to do a honest work without fear or favour, without favouritism. This is somebody who is my own brother. We are from the same place. And it is something that makes me feel nobody would think that I can ever go after him simply because of that. No, I honestly feel that we have no alternative but to do what is expected of us honestly and in the fear of God and that God would judge what happened.



So, he himself knows whether what we did was right or not. And time will tell. If he becomes the president of Nigeria, I have no issue with that. My own, I will be able to defend what I have done. I always heard what Obasanjo used to say: ‘whatever I am doing, I will do it because I will stand before God and man to defend it anyday.’ And I try as much as possible to do it honestly, transparently, in an accountable manner. Anything you ask me to explain, I will be able to explain to you and say this is what happened. And, therefore, anybody who becomes president, including himself, he would see it. Look, he knows what really happened. And by the way, he is also not saying that he has done it. What I did for Atiku is far more than what he did for me. He knows it himself, he knows it.



But the impression out there is that Mallam Nuhu Ribadu has tried, but that his commission is heavily politicised and selective and has done nothing on the Nigeria Ports Authority scam because of Bode George and the fertilizer scam...

(Cuts in) Which fertilizer scam?



The petition against the Minister of Agriculture on a N2.8billion fertilizer scam...

I have never seen it. The probe of the NPA, Bode George, even Mr. President himself, I can explain to you.



What of Mr. President?

We have investigated the President and we are making the report available, I will send you a copy. We are going to make it available to you. Let me tell you, this issue of being selective, is something that everywhere we go, they ask us. But I take it as part of the work we are doing, which touches on powerful individuals and it has never happened in this country before. We have never seen powerful individuals put in handcuffs and asked to account for their own misdeeds. It has never happened. Before, it was only political cases or may be, you are a coup plotter or the military wanted to deal with you . Then, you will be subjected to any kind of trial, be it kangaroo or not. So, we have never seen powerful people brought to face justice. So, they would always give reasons why it is happening.



Moreso, this work we are doing, at any given time, you would be accused of one thing or the other. When we were fighting 419, they abused me; they said because I belonged to one part of the country, that was why I hunted them. When we were fighting failed banks and those who stole money from banks, even the North, when we took Bulama, who was then the MD of Bank of the North, there was nothing they did not cast on me. They said it was because I was Fulani while he is Kanuri. When we went after the Zamfara governor, they said because he was Hausa while I was Fulani. When we went after Dariye, they said because he was a Christian and I was a Muslim. You see, all sorts of things. Everything you do, nobody is ready to confront the issue.


They do not believe that something can be done correctly and properly. Maybe this is as a result of where we are coming from, where things were not being done correctly.



There is always a motive or reason why government is doing this or that. It would take us a while to understand that there are also situations where people can do what is right, devoid of any interest. When it is time, time will be able to sort that out. It is an issue that we have to live with and confront. But if you look at the issue of being selective, who are the people that we have faced? Today, we brought people to justice. Look at them, they are all PDP people. If we are selective, why have we not gone after people in the opposition?



Or have you ever heard that we have gone after somebody who contested with Obasanjo, that is Buhari. Who is more of opposed to Obasanjo than Buhari or Gani Fawehinmi?But simply because some PDP people who are gangsters who think they would continue doing what they like, the moment you touch them, they say it is because they disagreed with Obasanjo, what sort of disagreement is that? Look, we brought ministers to justice, we brought the former senate president, Wabara, to justice, is it not the same person (the president) who appointed the ministers? The former Inspector-General of Police (IGP), Tafa Balogun, was he not close to Obasanjo? For God’s sake, let us fear God, let’s know what is happening, all these people we brought to justice, nobody is saying anything. The governors that we broguht to justice, they are all PDP governors, all of them, Fayose, at a time, he was even called Obasanjo’s son, D.S.P. Alamieyeseigha, he is PDP, nobody can say he disagreed with OBJ. Dariye, the same thing, never, anybody who says that, it’s a lie. All these things, they would want to use as a form of cover to protect themselves.



You were talking of Bode George, who is Bode George?If I can go after Atiku, who is my own brother, who is vice president of Nigeria?If I can go after the IG, who is my own direct boss?If I can go after governors, who use their own politics to insult us, it is not right, it’s not fair, to tell you, Bode George is insignificant in the setting of things we are doing.



Let me tell you, the issue is that, I don’t care whether he has issues with people or not, that is not my business, nobody can force me to go into areas I cannot justify. I told you earlier, whatever I am doing, I will do it to be able to stand before man and God and defend in an accountable manner, in the proper way. Now, in the case of NPA, how it even started, it was an administrative panel, NPA wanted to get some money, I think to settle some outstanding liabilities, they went to the Federal Exceutive Council (FEC) to get approval to pay this money.



The president and the cabinet said, look, we need to check these liabilities to know if things had not gone wrong, moreso, they were getting information that some things were not right over there. They then set up a committee with EFCC represented on the committee, and to head it, Ministries of Finance and Transport were also there and the then Secretary to the Government of the Federation, BPE and Due Process Office, all represented, administrative panel to check and see.



We did the work, I was part of it, we finished and submitted a report last year. In it, we identified lots of fraudulent acts that took place there. And we said, there was a need for criminal investigation, there was need for recoveries to be made, there was the need for people to be checked, then the cabinet, including the president sent the report back to the EFCC saying we should initiate the criminal investigations against all of them and we started working.



We got that order last November and we have been working on it, we opened investigation case, there are gangsters who are chief executives of this NPA, nobody is talking about them. Why are people not mentioning Bello Gwandu, or Aminu Nadabo? Why do they keep mentioning Bode George, who was a non-executive chairman, he was not the one running NPA. We have checked and we have seen. What we did in our administrative panel that we indicted the board for its failure to supervise the administrative head as a result of which things were done improperly and we are checking, every single contract in NPA, if we see Bode George’s name there, I swear to God Almighty, I will bring him to justice, Walahi Talahi, I swear to God, if we see his name that he is a beneficiary, if we see where he did this contract or converted this money or he diverted it, I swear to Almighty God, I will bring him to justice, Walahi, like any other person, but that does not mean because people are playing politics with that issue, I will now go out of my way to go and hunt him, I will never do a thing like that even if he is the worst enemy of the people, I will never do it.



Bode George, was never an executive head of NPA, there was an executive Director-General, why are people not talking about him, why? And nobody cares to find out what are the real things happening in NPA. We asked people, bring out facts against Bode George and see what we can do ,bring it and now I am throwing this challenge to all Nigerians, bring it and see. In the NPA, we are checking, if I see it, whether his company or he himself authorised removing anything or taking anything away from the NPA, I will not leave him. But that does not mean that I will go out of my way, just because the expectation of people is that we must bring him to justice, it is not right.



Let’s leave Bode George, and concentrate on the report of the probe of NPA, you sent the report to the Federal Executive Council and the report was returned as inconclusive.

Never, it was never reported to be inconclusive, never. It was returned to us to initiate criminal investigation. The first one was a panel, politicians changed it. People who wanted it to be a different thing used it. Anybody you touch, I heard what Wabara said about NPA, Atiku would say what about NPA? Orji Kalu would say what about NPA? All what they have is NPA and I thank God if that is the only thing they have.



It was an administrative panel, and it was converted to a criminal investigation which we are doing. We have arrested people on it, we invited Bode George and we took his statement and we are taking Nadabo, we are taking Bello Gwandu, we disqualified Bello Gwandu from contesting. He won primaries of the PDP in Kebbi State, but we disqualified him because of this report, but nobody is saying anything about that. And we have continued to do the work and we have sliced the money which ordinarily would have been paid to these contractors, we are still in control of it. We refused to allow anybody to be paid this money. All these things we have done, nobody is talking about it, it’s only condemning us daily and it is not fair, heartless, it is very, very heartless.



Concerning the president, the investigation is in which area?

Alleged conspiracy, fraudulent conversion or whatever .... No, we have done it, we are going to make it public, don’t worry, and what we are doing, we work openly and transparently, I swear to God, Walahi, we do it honestly and whatever we do, we are going to make public and you will see . This is the report, I just got it myself on my way to this place and I would go through it and then we are through with it;sif we see anything, we would say it honestly, but that does not mean that I will go after anybody simply because your expectation is that I must go after him.



I would make it public, if anybody has any question, make it fast and then I would be able to answer exactly like what is happening in the case of NPA. I have told you what happened and I swear to God, that is it. I have nothing whatsoever, I would not do things to make myself popular, I would never hunt Bode George simply because people want me to do that, it is not right, God will not forgive me.



In you investigation on PTDF, there is a missing gap that people have been harping upon, this MOFAS account, Marine Float, now the allegation, according to the people is that the president and the VP operated the two accounts together.

(Cuts in) It’s not true, it is a lie. We came out with our report and if you like, I can send a copy to you. You see, MOFAS is an account owned by Otunba Fasawe and Atiku. Atiku’s son is a director of MOFAS, and it was an account that was opened as far back as say between 1990 and 1992 not in 1998 ,at that time, Obasanjo was not even the president. May be he didn’t even know Atiku then. You understand and the details are there, these are people that are desperate, they are playing politics to cover things, I will send the report to you and you will see.



MOFAS is 100 per cent owned by Otunba Fasawe and Atiku Abubakar, we have the details, we have the records, including copies of the Corporate Affairs Commission (CAC) certifcates and names of shareholders, the directors of MOFAS. So, it’s not an issue of going into what is not our own. We are a professional organisation, we do professional work, we come out with evidence and facts, we don’t want to go into politics. If the vice president has political issues with the president, they can do it, but that will not interfere with the work we are doing, and I think we shoud make the report available to you all.



You investigated candidates that are going to contest elections in April 2007, Nigerians are waiting for the report of the investigation.



First and foremost, we are investigating INEC, I think that is more important because those who thought they could do what they have always done, they are in for a shocker. We don’t have the power to stop any candidate, but we have the power to actually make INEC to do what is right. Thank you and I hope you are satisfied.

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EFCC and the Challenges of Democratic Reforms in Nigeria
By Nuhu Ribadu, 02.11.2007
Sunday, February 11, 2007

Thank you ladies and gentlemen for this robust outing and reception. I feel greatly honoured and appreciative of the kind invitation from the leadership of the local section of ASUU, as well as of the impressive preparations of organizing committee for this event. Thank you for all the hard work that went into putting this event together, and for the good work ASUU is doing in the effort to ensure that the campuses retain the vitality of spirit and culture of debate that is critical for the development of sound minds and creative thinkers necessary for the development and repositioning of our badly abused country.

I have used the phrase, culture of debate, with particular emphasis because, to my mind, this is one sad area where military rule and the culture of authoritarianism that it bred wrecked the worst havoc on our academic community. I recall with enduring nostalgia those heated and regular exchanges in lecture, seminar, and conference halls that kept our many campuses on high key during my undergraduate days at the famous Ahmadu Bello University in Zaria. I trust that many in this hall today will agree with the sad observation that the culture of debate is in serious retreat on our campuses and that we must renew serious investment in its purpose if we want to own the future of this country. I observe the overwhelming presence of faith engagement in the new definition of community life on campus, and Allah knows that faith is critical and important, but it seems to me that youth life must be saturated with the purposive concerns of inquiry, disputation, daring do, challenge, and above all, a decisive engagement with critical change.

Painfully, that is not what we see in high proportion these days among our youths on campus and it becomes unsettling when we look to the future in realization that no nation of the world has conquered the barriers of underdevelopment without that star power of youth imagination and social action. The list is there for all of us to see…the fathers of our own independence from Herbert Macaulay to Aminu Kano as well as from the great examples of our cousins in the region like Nelson Mandela and Kwame Nkrumah.

It is important that we unleash the energies of our youth in the direction of the major concerns of our time otherwise we would have to deal with the kinds of deviant attitudes that congeal to rupture the society with devastating but negative force. Such is the challenge that we face today in the form of cults on campus, drug gangs, rape, and other sexual abusive cultures. To be sure, in normal and active youth communities aspects of negative attitudes will linger but the fact will remain that they will be strange exceptions.

It will be honest at this point to quickly acknowledge the salutary work that ASUU itself has put in to help democratize the precincts of our academic community from the days of Biodun Jeyifo through the remarkable work of the late Mahmud Tukur. ASUU, as we all know, helped re-energized the flabby morale of the Nigerian labour movement in the early to mid eighties analyzing currently that the key challenge before the Nigerian nation and its fledging democracy was how to give social substance to democratic transition from decades of military authoritarian rule. ASUU’s intellectual and political leadership in the university community certainly had a rub off effect because this was the age that came to produce the NANS Charter of Demand that tabled the challenge of democratization of education as a major national campaign program.

I delve into this short historical excursion to illustrate the point of how every age creates its challenges and how it is the responsibility of every elite to interprete those challenges accurately in fashioning the best tools that will help bring resolves to the cogent contradictions of that age.

Thus, while it is true that after two back-to-back civilian supervised elections, even as evidence of untidiness still litter our electoral management practice, we have certainly moved the political threshold beyond a transitory democracy to a phase where we can confidently proclaim that our major challenge is how to consolidate our democratic practice by giving it substance and grip through the deepening of democratic values.

I have spoken repeatedly in the past year that on the basis of the empirical evidence from the work I do as a law enforcement officer one of the key challenges to our democracy today is governance and the management of public patrimony. Scholars will come in different frames to this same problem, and that is a legitimate intellectual professional way of embracing reality but I strongly believe that invariably it all boils down to how to administer the process and the content of governance.

Ladies and gentlemen, let me crave your indulgence to propose that the way it occurs to me, corruption, indeed grand corruption, represent, the major virus that compromises the promise of governance in this country today. I know social scientists will legitimately seek a broader debate about the context that makes corruption viable in the first place but that is not the scope of my presentation here. The truth of the matter is that corruption can be isolated as a major element that distorts the vision of realizing a democratic society, of building a society of opportunity, and of ensuring the germination of a true regime of rule of law.

Let us not mince words: today, my friends, our country sways at the verge of a fundamental ethical turning point in which the unspeakable level of grand corruption run the risk of canceling our democratic future, the foundations of our economy, and indeed the social fabric of our nation. From direct experience of the data I have at my disposal I have no doubt in my mind that this is a ticking time bomb situation and we have a monumental emergency with severe tragic proportions on our hands. Just look at it this way, by diverting resources from intended public use like in education to illegitimate private benefit, corrupt public officials cause massive human deprivations gravely affecting the livelihoods of the poor and weaker members of our community who are the most vulnerable. You can duplicate this problem in many dimensions to see the point I am making that corruption is at the heart of most problems of our time especially regarding undermining the protection and promotion of human rights and especially inhibiting the ability of the poor to the full realization of economic, social and cultural rights. Yet, the matter never ends there, because the act of corruption ultimately triggers the infringement of civil and political rights by tilting the scales of justice in courts, undermining the electoral process, as well as narrows the access to public service. Frankly, you don’t need to be smart social scientists to make the nexus between corruption and how it threatens the rule of law, the democratic principle, human rights, fairness and social justice as well as good governance. Is Ibadan not a perfect case study anyway? In primary school, it was basic rhyme that Ibadan was always put in the relationship of Cairo and Johannesburg to illustrate its place in Africa. Well, perhaps not all of us here have been to Cairo and Johannesburg but such a relationship today must stop as a pastime of comedians.

In any case, is anybody here bold enough to stand up and swear that any of the states of this region have benefited in any significant regard from the famous lingo of the moment, “dividends of democracy”? This is certainly true of most states of the federation and corruption not only distorts competition, hinders economic growth and endangers the stability of democratic institutions, it pulls down the moral foundation of society. With the African Union reporting that corruption drains Africa of some $140 billion or about 25 per cent of the continent's official GDP, and the Africa Development Bank indices showing that corruption leads to a loss of approximately 50% of tax revenues, --greater than the some the total foreign debt of some countries—it needs no rocket scientist indicating to us that corruption has become perhaps the major cause of poverty in Africa. It is also pertinent to bear in mind that from the ADB studies, the fact that lower income households in Africa spends an average of 3% of their income on bribes while the rich spends an average of 0.9% for the same purpose show that corruption is also rooted in a class bias that disempowers the poor beyond the generally received notion of failure of governance. Corruption also pinches the pockets of the poor in favour of the rich!

Let me bring the illustration closer home to us in talking here of corruption that is endemic, that is systematic, and that is ultimately capable of annulling of the very corporate representation of our country as a nation and as a state. Without seeking to bore you with statistics that have now become familiar, let me walk you through a few examples and offer you the vision of what those corrupt acts cost us as a people and as a nation. My pet example is the £220 billion (about $500 billion) of development assistance that, according to the World Bank and the British Daily Telegraph Business Reports, has been stolen from this country since independence to date by past leaders of our country.

Nigerians have sadly become inoculated against the dizzying expression of high financial figures but the best way to appreciate this figure is to recall that it represents six times the value in money that went into rebuilding Europe via the famous Marshal plan at the end of the 2nd world war. In case you don’t fully grasp this illustration; the money that past Nigerian leaders have stolen in a 40-year time capsule could have recreated the beauty and glory of Western Europe six times all over in this country.

Ladies and Gentlemen, if you ask me very honestly, I will say without hesitation that this bizarre level of kleptocracy is perhaps the greatest human tragedy that has affected our people and society since slavery and colonialism. When next you see those long endless queues of visa applicants frustrated and angry at what the perceived nation cannot offer, or have promised and could not deliver, I think it is appropriate to link the fact that this is directly a result of a culture of stealing so horrendous and mind-boggling from the poorest of our community via the agency of government by many big men who are still walking about free today (as they ought not to do). Yet that is not all: some eight years ago, the Central Bank computed that N200 billion was lost in what has now gone into our register as the failed banks regime. This incidence was a spectacular act of gangsteris in perpetrated by the banking elites to capture the hard earned resources of fellow citizens. I know a little about this since this was how I came into active anti-corruption work as one of the panelists who investigated that phenomenon. Ladies and gentlemen, please relate that to the case of the N18 Billion that was recovered from a former head of the law enforcement institution in this country. In three years of our work also, we have sighted and recovered most of about $5 Billion worth of proceeds from looted funds, which is a global record by all standard. Can we reflect a bit on what these kinds of money can do to the community life of our people? Students and faculties of UI will certainly know what that can do in transforming this great citadel of learning to a world class center of Cultural Revolution in the continent and the world. Attentive scholars of development have already drawn correlations between corruption and development, as indeed we can all draw a demonstrable correlation between the realities of corruption as the abusive use of public power, and the monumental failure in governance in Nigeria so that next time we visit the Kenneth Dike Library here at UI and shake our heads for what we think we ought to have in stock but which in reality we do not have in the making of a world class library, corruption is a central factor to blame, the same reason which stands, in my humble opinion, as an obstacle towards developing the appropriate social and economic equity, across the board, that can launch Nigeria from its potentialities to the realization of true greatness.

On the balance therefore, ladies and gentlemen, we are dealing with an extremely serious situation here, which is both widespread and very expensive. This same problem as we can all agree without much debate has led to gross violation and wanton violence against the collective as well as the individual rights of the average Nigerian. If corruption therefore stands, as I am arguing, as the single most damaging force against economic growth, social stability and democracy; if corruption is the very reason why, after about half a century of independence, we still cannot proudly hold our own among nations that have built an enriching community life for their citizens, then why are we so complacent Ideally, the noise should be uncontrollable by now in our quest for solutions. The missing link in all these for me, however, is the lack of commensurate outrage. Where is the outrage among our compatriots who are so easily pricked to revolt in instances of ethnic and religious challenge? Where is the revolt from the elites, the academics and the professionals, who are the engines of social growth in any community? If our elites have become so numbed to this serious threat against our collective community life then we better throw our hands in the air and forget it because there is nothing sacrosanct after all about geographies if they are not defined in a spiritual sense of commitment, values, sacrifices, and loyalties. In my view, an elite worth its salt in the challenging description of our country today must address the monumental moral crisis we face of which the epicenter is the question of corruption. Frankly speaking, it is impossible to exaggerate the problem of corruption in Nigeria but we must work hard as a people to ensure that we are not moving from a phase of shared propagation of patronage and the generation of an inept public sector to the point where corruption leads to the erosion of confidence in the machinery of the state by the citizenry. When a nation gets to that point, the result, as we have seen elsewhere in Africa, is the eventual collapse of the state.

How many people here remember the great wealth of a country once called Zaire? How many recall a shameless thieving dictator called Mr. Mobutu Sese Seko? Well both Zaire and Mobutu have gone down in the lexicon of state and leadership failure as past tense. Zaire and Mobute are the metaphors that recur when a state fails. Zaire, now Congo DR, could have been the exemplary African nation. Its natural and human resources were the envy of all. Now, that is in dubious contention. The state failed paving the path for a horrendous bloodbath of a genocidal proportion. Zaire is no more, its treasury a rancid remembrance of when kleptocrats come to power. Mobutu is gone, hopefully to hell, but millions of his poor compatriots are being killed and murdered in a senseless war that takes the hue of an ethno-national colour rather than a simple case of failure of governance triggered by corruption, and big power manipulation.

Ladies and Gentlemen, we have a lot of work on our hands and the academic community has an important role to play in helping realize the goals of society of equity and opportunity. I wish to propose that the first port of call is to diffuse the knowledge and provide a muscular intellectual rationalization for Nigerians to understand that economic crimes and corruption represent the major human rights problem of our time, and that their violation represents, therefore, very serious crimes. My second proposition is that time has come to equate these crimes to the stature of offences proper for the International Criminal Court. The first wave of outrage against this call, I will assume would be from the same elites, and their legal consultants, that have brought us to our current crisis. They would argue that I am equating economic crimes to genocide and war crimes.

My defence will be that since 1998 when the Rome Statute setting up the International Criminal Court was being negotiated, its fifth article defining the crimes within the jurisdiction of the court included economic crimes, along with the crimes of genocide, crimes against humanity, war crimes and crimes of aggression. I will imagine that most reasonable people will appreciate that in most developing countries the consequences of economic crimes would be as devastating as any form of war crime or even genocide. Does anyone want to argue that Mobutu’s civic and political rights would be abridged if he were tried for war crimes today? Ditto for Charles Taylor in Liberia? Have we not seen it before our very eyes here in many Nigerian states that the massive misappropriation of funds have resulted in the starvation of thousands of citizens, as well as the death of many sick kids, or even the sorry fate of many street children, had the money been rightly used for the purpose it had been appropriate for? I am aware that there will be arguments also that perpetrators of economic crimes did not set forth to wilfully deny their victims of their basic rights as human beings or as a targeted group. This problem of intentionality, which lawyers call mens rea, requiring that prosecutors prove a defendant’s intention or state of mind when committing a crime will be the major banner hoisted by opponents of this call but that is precisely my argument: that it is up to our academic minds to help us seek intellectual pathways out of the formalistic jigsaw that currently chokes the search for justice as against technical legalism.

We certainly need more reflection on this important proposal that can help move the anti-corruption debate to the human rights arena and I urge you ladies and gentlemen to pick up this challenge in the service of an urgent national salvation project.

Dear friends, because we are in the environment of a national election in the next few months, let me recall some comments I have made repeatedly that have import for our dialogue here this morning. First, I want to say that by this election, our great country could move forward to consolidate its fledging democracy, and in that process marshal in a welcoming era of economic prosperity, however, we may also trigger costly reversals by crowning another profligate administration that may reverse all the modest but significant gains of the past years, with the terrible implication of severe consequences. It is therefore the duty of academics and students to start promoting strong monitoring mechanisms on the role of money in politics. We at the EFCC will ensure that only the most ethical persons show up for political choice in the coming dispensation. We have carefully followed the party primaries, followed the various fund raising arrangements being put in place and we truly feel appalled to state that the Nigerian political class has learnt nothing of the problems that brought the ship of our state to its current sorry state.

We must however not be cynical or despondent because genuine change is possible and individuals as well as organisations can make a difference. In the three years that we have been in existence our history assures us that this is true. Recall the scene before we arrived in 2003, especially regarding our national image profile. The so-called 419 king-pins were then like untouchables but we went after them by taking on their powerful king-pins and hauling these untouchable captains into jail. You all are living witnesses that these crooks are still in jail today. Nigerians who are making this difference are young men and women like some that I see here today--very young, idealistic, courageous and desirous of changing their country. A good many, I hope you will be proud to know, are also from the University of Ibadan, your own students, like the Best all-round cadet from the rigorous EFCC Academy this year, Miss Tolu Olarobi, who is an alumnus of this great school.

These very young men and women, these students that you trained who are the silent soldiers silently but relentlessly combing across our country daily, helping to make this land safe and free for us all were also the architects of the banking reform in this country.

Some of you who have followed our history will recall that after our encounter with the leadership of the 419 trade, we moved our searchlight into the banking halls and cracked down with massive and overwhelming force on the bank barons who were perpetrating the most heinous financial fraud. It was that titanic battle of wills that ultimately helped the consolidation process in the financial sector that is now restoring confidence into our financial and banking system. When we started the campaign we had to endure blackmail, lies and insults. Today that has been done and you see for yourself that change is possible.

However, the cost for standing up against the powerful and the all-mighty can be huge and you can ask us for testimonies. When we moved our searchlights from the 419ners and the thieving bank barons, to the corridors of the political elites, hell was suddenly let loose.

There are cries and screams of “selective justice”, of “Gestapo tactics”, and of all sorts of diversionary propaganda. Unable to deal with the message, the Nigerian political elite has smartly reverted to that discredited tactics of hacking down the messenger. This will not dissuade us, and frankly I do not think they can win. Fundamentally, their claims are tenuous, and overly hysterical. For instance, those who advance the argument of selective justice have not helped their audience understand how selective justice amounts to an act of injustice; and as one famous national commentator put it recently, “you have 10 robbers in a den and you arrest four but they fire back at you with the defence that there are other robbers in the field. Why not catch all before you pronounce us as robbers”! Such is infantile nature of their arguments and those of their hired and professional propagandists.

The benefits that come with the ongoing elite raid on our national patrimony, as well as the intimidating material and cultural resources at the disposal of these abusive elite are so enormous that we must expect a massive counter offensive from the political class against the EFCC’s current challenge to confront the corrupt stratum of that class. However, as we always promise, we will do our best, within the framework of our mandate, but will never succumb to blackmail and intimidation.

Ladies and Gentlemen, let me say it clearly that we seek genuine companionship from the academic community to deny the enemies of our progress the intellectual comfort they constantly seek when they plough the ill-gotten wealth from our collective treasure in casting themselves victims of investigation and or prosecution. I am greatly encouraged to note that under the ASUU Code of conduct, erring members could be denied support of the association if their offences are of a grave nature such as sexual harassment and plagiarism. That is a brilliant statement of courage and I urge you to also extend that spirit to the fight against corruption by harnessing your intellectual resources in support of the fight against economic crimes because it is the reason why we are in this current derelict state.

In conclusion I wish to announce that the EFCC has concluded plans to give a N5Million annual Governance Award in support of the effort of a Nigerian citizen who has made the greatest contribution in support of democracy through a courageous promotion of rule of law and a human rights- based approach to governance. The 2007 Award process and the administrators of the Award will be announced soon. Thank you for your attention and patience.

God Bless Nigeria. Thank you all, this country will be great again.

• Ribadu, Executive Chairman, Economic and Financial Crimes Commission, (EFCC), delivered the speech at the Academic Staff Union of Universities, ASUU, Quarterly Seminar/Colloquium, University of Ibadan.

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Guardian Editorial

Thursday, April 03, 2008

EFCC, ICPC and the recovery of stolen funds

IN a recent joint press conference, the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC) and the Independent Corrupt Practices and other Related Offences Commission (ICPC) revealed that they have, in sum, recovered over N600 billion of looted money from corrupt government officials. This is commendable, even if saddening.

The press conference followed a Joint Strategy Retreat of anti-graft bodies, including the Code of Conduct Bureau (CCB) that keeps track of incomes and assets of public officers before and after their period in office, and this was under the aegis of the Coalition for Change, a Non-Governmental Organisation (NGO). While the EFCC said it has recovered more than $5 billion, the ICPC disclosed that it has recovered N13 billion from its corruption prevention exercises during the review of personnel cost profile in government ministries, departments and agencies and unremitted tax revenue from public sector agencies.

It is not enough however to announce the amount of money that has been recovered. There are unanswered questions. From whom was the money or monies recovered? What has been done with the recovered loot? Has anybody been prosecuted? Both the EFCC and the ICPC would have to publish in particular the names of the affected persons.

It is worth noting that the anti-graft agencies were never intended for the collection of revenue for government, however incidental that objective may be, as there are other agencies of government solely and specifically designed for that purpose already. Even when they engage in loot recovery, this must be followed up with the arraignment and conviction of the looters and thieves in the court of law. It is therefore lamentable that in the said press conference, nothing was reported about the names of convicted culprits which the officials may not have alluded to because it was not their intention to do so.

Some of the problems surrounding the operation of the anti-graft agencies in Nigeria are only too familiar to be recounted, especially under the last administration. Not least of these is the use of the agencies by the same administration for intimidating its opponents and so called enemies of state. The EFCC disclosed that to date it has successfully recorded 213 convictions, it is also prosecuting over 1,000 cases of economic corruption and money laundering in courts across the country. The ICPC has managed to record only 12 convictions, although it is currently prosecuting about 148 criminal cases involving 284 persons. The difference in terms of productivity is obvious enough, but certainly, the rate of 213 convictions by the EFCC and only 12 by the ICPC is rather low, considering the scale of corruption in the country.

The ICPC spokesperson had drawn further attention to the fact that the ICPC is especially handicapped, as it does not enjoy the same latitude as the EFCC. Many an accused person being tried by the ICPC has had to seek and obtain an interlocutory injunction against further prosecution. The truth is that observers would feel unimpressed by the performance of the ICPC to date.

Blaming the interlocutory process or the bail process impresses no one; rather government should ensure that legitimate processes do not lead to aiding and abetting unnecessarily an otherwise common criminal to escape justice and the wrath of the law. The ICPC Act may also have to be reviewed in order to strengthen the operations of the organisation and its capacity to investigate and prosecute offenders effectively.

It is time to publish in minute details the report of these agencies, showing the names, charges preferred against the wrong-doers and terms of sentence, proceeds of the settlement and the accounts into which they were paid. People are beginning to conclude that the management of almost every aspect of our national patrimony was dangerously abused and mismanaged under the last administration. It can therefore not be over-emphasised that the present administration must be under no illusion that business as usual is unacceptable to the generality of Nigerians.

It is equally important to begin to address issues and challenges that constrain the effective discharge of the responsibilities of the anti-graft agencies if government seriously intends to provide a national platform for building a new Nigeria. One other question that was addressed is whether the EFCC and ICPC should be merged. We think that the two agencies should continue to exist separately. What should not be permitted is a situation of one duplicating any fundamental duty of the other or one constituting an impediment to the smooth running of the other.

More importantly, whatever slows down the operation of one or the other must be removed forthwith so that either of them can meet the objectives for which it was established. Ideally, the operation of one should strengthen the other in achieving its objectives. These objectives must be synchronised synergistically. Minor problems of conflict should be addressed.

Government should also ensure that some long-term practices of the judiciary that delay justice are not allowed to continue unduly. For instance, not a little distress is engendered in the process of adjudicating some of these cases where judges are transferred without due regard for on-going cases. Yet some cases are also affected when leave and holidays are scheduled for the judges in ways that damage the smooth running of the judicial process. Some of these issues may not be unconnected also with the welfare of our judges in terms of providing them with incentives and facilities to facilitate the discharge of their duties.

We continue to witness cases move from the sublime to the ridiculous such as giving the accused leave to settle some private matters even when faced with a criminal investigation. This is the time to give our anti-graft laws and agencies the teeth to bite with stinging effectiveness.