ANTI GRAFT SERMON: BELIEVING KING JAMES OR MALLAM RIBADU?

 

Barely few months from their cooperative efforts and good teamwork to produce the hitherto un-interested Umaru Yar’Adua as the President of the Federal Republic of Nigeria, it would be rash to conclude on the basis of some anonymous gist that relations between the former governor of Delta state, James Ibori and Chairman of the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC), Mallam Nuhu Ribadu are strained for personal reasons.

A firmer inference on the saga between the two ‘fixers’ would be that Yar’Adua from obvious indications is at the fulcrum of two directly opposing forces, one pulling towards former president Obasanjo and the other pulling away from him. The visible effect of all these is already showing in the psychic of the President who has been rightly described as displaying the attributes of a leader already overwhelmed by the problems that face him.

This conflicting mindset has been clearly manifested in the plethora of orders and reverse- orders on the powers and reportorial lines of duties of the EFCC boss amongst other conflicting policy ‘about-turns’. Another outward manifestation of a divided Yar’Adua house could be inferred from the public trading of accusations and counter-accusations between the former Delta state governor and the EFCC Chairman both men that collaborated to knock-off all oppositions to the Yar’Adua’s candidacy.

Chief Ibori is strongly convinced that the EFCC Chairman, Mallam Nuhu Ribadu is pursuing a personal agenda against him. This allegation came as a reaction to the order of a London Court on his assets which James believed was issued on the advice of the EFCC boss plus other domestic issues.

The question is: In what ways has the Ibori London probe raised questions of irrationality and misconduct against the EFCC boss and why would Ribadu (if true as alleged by Ibori) want to embark on a personal vendetta against his erstwhile partner in PDP presidential selection scheming? 

Ribadu was believed to have over reached his powers by unilaterally reaching out to the London Metropolitan Police which subsequently succeeded in getting the South walk Crown Court to issue a restraining order on Ibori’s assets. This action by the EFCC boss raised questions of his actual intentions. This was because the procedure was that once the EFCC has reasons to believe a need exists for a suspect’s assets to be frozen, it contacts the office of the Attorney General of the Federation who in turn invokes clause 3 of the Mutual Legal Assistance Treaty signed between Nigeria and the UK to request that the assets be frozen. It is on the basis of that treaty that the UK authourities correspond with their Nigerian counterparts on issues of economic and financial crimes and the power to invoke it resides in the Minister of Justice. The EFCC boss failed to follow the due process, an action Ibori and the Nigerian Judiciary perceived as insubordinately overshooting his bounds especially as the Minister of Justice and Attorney General of the Federation denied writing the London Metropolitan Police on the assets of James Ibori

While the London Court controversy is still on and in addition to an allegation that Ibori has been sponsoring militant activists for his selfish gains, Ribadu has again declared that “the EFCC is working to uncover who allegedly received $6 million bribes from former manager of Wilbros”, an oil service firm that operated in Nigeria until early this year when it was forced to quit the Nigerian oil scene for reasons that were as flimsy as the company’s entire activities in the Niger Delta. The bribe was allegedly to help the company secure a $387 million contract to build a gas pipeline. An indictment by a U.S. panel against the Wilbros boss alleged that the company in Nigeria gave bribes to unnamed officials from the NNPC, the government, and the ruling People’s Democratic Party.

Hear Ribadu in an interview with Reuters: “We are cooperating with U.S. law enforcement agencies on the case. You will definitely see the outcome of our own investigation and if it means there will be indictments in Nigeria then so be it. There will be, it is very likely.”

Meanwhile, a story was circulated in the media especially the web-based media that James Ibori bought over Wilbros Nigeria after he forced the American owners to quit Nigeria following incessant militant harassment. From all indications, this particular story is directly linked to the EFCC build up against the former Delta state governor. Why is the EFCC now raising all these allegations against Ibori just few months from when both men dinned and wined with Obasanjo to produce Yar’Adua as president? It was on record that the former Delta state governor was said to have replaced the former Rivers state governor, Peter Odili in using their state resources to fund PDP and all the presidential campaigns including the evil primaries that undid Odili to produce the erstwhile un-interested Yar’Adua.

When Ibori was working hard to ensure that Yar’Adua emerged as president against the collective interest of the South-South, he was not corrupt and he was not sponsoring militants for personal gains; he has not allegedly bought Wilbros nor established the now widely publicized aviation service company; he has no houses in London and Canada? Haba! We need some serious gap analysis in this matter because somebody is either not sincere, or is not telling the truth.

It was not a surprise when Chief Ibori accused Ribadu of pursuing personal agenda (this time against him) because the former Delta state governor knew exactly what he was saying as both of them were involved in outright smear campaigns before now against perceived political enemies of Obasanjo and business organizations that belonged to the ‘left.’ This is the truth.

As for transparency and accountability for the huge funds given to Delta state during the eight years Ibori reigned as governor of the state, the former governor has serious cases to answer if not to EFCC, to the people of Delta state. From all indications, what’s on ground as infrastructures established by the Ibori government is nowhere near the huge resources that came into the state’s coffer from the federation account and internally generated revenues. However, whether the ongoing smear campaign of intimidation and the dimension it has assumed actually intends to correct the injustices against the people of Delta state or Ribadu’s personal vendetta against Ibori is a matter that only time would tell.

Frankly speaking, Ribadu’s problem is that he talks too much and this may be out of excitement, inferiority complex or outright inexperience in classification of information even classification of personal emotions. How else can you describe the unbecoming conduct of a public office holder whose assignment and office were supposed to be carried out under the strictest secrecy until cases are fully investigated and brought to the law court for prosecution?

The EFCC’s boss’s flip tongue no doubt created all the problems of credibility and sincerity of intentions which the Obasanjo-led government suffered and is still suffering in its otherwise well-intended campaign against corruption and fraud in public service. Before any of the former governors could be fully investigated, Ribadu had already sentenced them in the court of public functions and pages of newspapers. His public outbursts on who should be cleared or not based on his personal perception of who is corrupt and who is not led to the opposition allegations that Obasanjo used the EFCC to witch-hunt political opponents. And this may not be far from the truth as everybody hunted down and still being hunted were all opponents of Obasanjo’s third term bid. This not withstanding, the EFCC boss could have applied some covert tactics in achieving his master’s goals rather than the basket-mouth option.

Where are the 25 governors investigated and indicted by the EFCC in 2006 as revealed then by Ribadu before the PDP primaries? Meanwhile serious rot went on in the NNPC to the glaring knowledge of the EFCC ‘strongman’ between 1999 and 2007 including unaccounted billions of barrels of crude oil meant for local refining. NEITI even carried out an independent, self-financed audit using Hart Grant of London and the report was available for the EFCC to act upon, but the commission is yet to see it. What about the voodoo- assessment and due diligence before auctioning of all the nation’s lucrative economic assets, was the public outcry not enough to touch the EFCC boss to look into some of the allegations surrounding Obasanjo’s privatization programme? As the Holy Scripture advised, let the zeal to serve righteously consume you, rather than vendetta. Amen.

 

BY: IFEANYI AZU IZEZE

IFEANYI IZEZE IS A PORT HARCOURT-BASED ENABLING ENVIRONMENT CONSULTANT (iizeze@yahoo.com)