This is to convey my unreserved congratulations to you on your recent appointment to the office of the Chair(wo)man of the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission. It is an expression of confidence by the government of President Umaru Musa Yar’ Adua in your ability to shoulder the onerous task of piloting the affairs of the anti-corruption agency. It is also by extension a vote of confidence in the capability of women to deliver on integrity even in the face of isolated cases of some public women falling short of moral expectations in recent times.
You are coming into office at a very critical period in the history of the corruption war because the morale of the public has been erroneously dampened by the compulsory one-year course your predecessor was sent to at the NIPSS. The departure of the young man, whom I am made to know you trained at the SFU of the Police, was wrongly presumed to mark the death of the corruption war. Your first responsibility would therefore be to restore public confidence not only in the EFCC but also in the Government’s will and determination to tackle this monster called corruption.
One way to do this is to ensure that all the court cases against some previous governors which you inherited from the past leadership of the EFCC are prosecuted with vigour to a logical conclusion. Of particular note is the case against James Ibori, the former Governor of Delta State. This case is important because, insinuations were rife in the media that his arrest by EFCC pulled the final trigger on Ribadu’s removal. The unsubstantiated allegation was that the government, for political reasons, was shielding Ibori from trial and by his arrest Ribadu stepped on a banana peel and thus must fall. You would need to prove these critics wrong.
As you resume office, two women are standing trial on corruption charges at the instance of the EFCC. One of them is a former Minister of the current President and the other, the favourite daughter of a past President. This is happening less than a year after another woman was removed as Speaker of the Lower House of the National Assembly also on acts bordering on corruption. Your logical prosecution of these women will help to redeem the image of the womenfolk, which has been battered considerably by these scandals.
I urge you to avoid the mistake of your predecessor whereby he could not look beyond partisan politics but rendered himself a handy tool for the political persecution of political opponents. You must strive to see yourself as a servant to the nation rather than an employee of the PDP with a mandate to decimate opposition through spurious allegations, indictments or outright intimidation.
In the past the EFCC has focused on prosecution of crimes after they have been committed. This approach though desirable is essentially counter productive. Moreover the fact that EFCC needed to wait for someone to write a petition before such cases could be investigated implied that hundreds of cases go unnoticed. Your administration will make a difference if more energy and resources are committed into Financial Intelligence Unit for fraud prevention. For avoidance of doubt, the Act establishing the Commission empowered it to prevent, investigate, prosecute and penalise economic and financial crimes. Part II Section 6 e & f of the Act states that the Commission shall be responsible for the adoption of measures to eradicate the commission of economic and financial crimes; and the adoption of measures which includes coordinated preventive and regulatory actions, introduction and maintenance of investigative and control techniques on the prevention of economic and financial related crimes.
I have always maintained that the failure of the EFCC to adopt a holistic approach in this fight has done a great disservice to the nation. You must therefore widen the scope of this war. The EFCC must beam its searchlight on both past and serving ministers as well as Local Government Chairmen. Luckily Ministers are not under immunity and they can be prosecuted while still in office. The Banks and other financial institutions need to be under your close scrutiny as it is hard to divorce the thief and the receiver of stolen goods.
A series of probes are going on in the National Assembly especially as regards the power sector. I hope you will step in at the appropriate time when their assignments are over and some people are indicted. If this is not done, the probes would be an exercise in futility and a waste of public funds.
One person that has a mandatory duty to appear before your commission is the immediate past President. Don’t let his eloquent and evasive reply to the House Committee probing the power sector fool you into believing that the man is the angel that he claims to be. The EFCC must do its independent investigation into the financial dealings of the former President.
For instance Nigerians woke up one day close to the terminal date of his second term suddenly to a press report that a group of ‘friends’ gathered at Ota farm to donate funds for an Obasanjo Library and a whooping six billion hard earned Naira was realised. The week before this lunching, his (late) wife launched her Childcare Trust Fund, again millions of Naira was realised. All these happened in the twilight of his tenure and at a time he was presumably fighting corruption, albeit more with his mouth. Nigerians were left with questions like; was this money really intended for a library project. If so did OBJ need 6-billion to build a library for himself? What was the source of money for these “donors”? OBJ needs to answer these questions now. He also needs to tell us more about NNPC, his stewardship as Minister for petroleum for 8-years, TRANSCORP and the mysterious transformation of his ailing farm to a multibillion Naira investment within eight years.
You may also need to talk to Gbenga Obasanjo to give us more details about the oil contracts he claimed his dad gave out to his estranged wife in exchange for her lewd relationship with the former president.
The task is huge but I am confident that with experience, exposure, training and a track record of excellent performance in the Police Force like yours, you will be above intimidation, coercion and incorruptible in the discharge of your duties. I am also persuaded to believe that you will see this appointment, as an opportunity to leave your footsteps on the sand of time and bequeath a better legacy to the Nigerian girl child than the portrait of the likes Patricia Olubunmi Etteh, Professor Grange and Senator Iyabo Obasanjo-Bello.
It is becoming apparent that the EFCC needs to pay closer attention to the financial dealings at the National Assembly. As the Iyabo case indicates, Federal Ministries seem to have perfected a league with the legislators who are saddled with oversight functions over them. And so, they could loot public funds and share it with the legislators. Everyone smiles happily to the bank and the deal is sealed from public scrutiny. While these deals are going on, infrastructure continues to decay and the average Nigerian is the worst for it.
Another reason you need to be interested in the National Assembly is the fact that recent details released of their 2008 budget projections smells of a gang up to loot with impunity. It is very difficult not to get upset or completely angry when analysing the National Assembly budget figures. For example, how do you justify cost items like, Generator Charges and Generator Fuel and Miscellaneous Power charges appearing under a single cost centre? And there are dozens of such duplicated expenditure in the appropriation bill. Senator Nuhu Aliu recently gave us cause to believe that the National Assembly is harbouring some 419ers, but he later chickened out and declined to name them. Your eagle eye on the accounts of the Senators could give a lead on any criminal dealings in the legislature.
You cannot afford to fail. The whole world is on the watch out. You must realize that you are coming in with less than half the goodwill that your predecessor enjoyed. Those who never believed there was a substitute for Ribadu are waiting eagerly to lunch their attack, should you perform below expectations. But looking at your curriculum vitae, I came away with the conclusion that your feet are slightly bigger than the shoe Ribadu left behind so you must go get your pair rather than struggle to wear an undersized shoe.
Congratulations for the well deserved appointment, and may God guide your every step in the saddle...Amen
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