From James Ojo, Abuja
Pioneer executive chairman of Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC), Mallam Nuhu Ribadu, yesterday expressed fear that the on going war against corruption might suffered a repeat of 2007, when those who stole public money colluded with corrupt elements in government to remove him from office unceremoniously.
Ribadu was named EFCC chairman in 2003 by the former president Olusegun Obasanjo administration and reappointed for a second term in 2007, but few months into a new government headed by the late Umaru Yar’Adua, he was not only sacked from office, but demoted. “I have chosen to take a stand on this because I have passed through this myself, and I see similar signs of those dark moments of 2007 hovering all over us,” he told a gathering marking the fifth year anniversary of Connected Development, a network of watchdog groups working with communities to follow the money earmarked for rural development.
Ribadu, who commended the Ibarhim Magu led EFCC warned about the dangers of scuttling the war which he described as a dangerous cocktail when some corrupt elements in power decide to side with private interests outside government, using the rule of law as a ruse, to muscle sincere efforts to tackle corruption.
According to him, the nation was yet to finish paying for the mistakes of 2007 and the years after. “We should not allow history to repeat itself in this regard,” he warned. On the need to support the EFCC, he said his experience showed that the job was tough and very challenging. Said he: “We, as Nigerians, must stand to be counted on the intractable issue which poses a bigger challenge to the corruption malaise. Importantly, at a time like this, when a clear line is re-emerging, demarcating agents of progress and those bent on stopping them, as citizens, we have a duty not to be on the fence, but make a clear choice between these contending forces.”
According to him; “the current anti-corruption regime in the country is working. We have seen the feat attained in recent past and the ongoing effort to stall it. Nigerians must take a stand between those who are working diligently to get back our stolen money and those who are poised to scuttle such efforts. “We are witnessing essentially a classical case of state capture, in which individuals, including those in high public office, use their position to undermine the state and its policies because of their personal interest.”
The former EFCC chairman lamented further that, “some people who should be part of efforts at restitution are colluding with those who have stolen our commonwealth to frustrate the work of those who are genuinely committed in reversing the ugly trend. And as this unholy alliance of corrupt people in and out of government takes root, it is us, the ordinary Nigerians, that are the victims.”
“Those who have been a stumbling block to the war against corruption clearly do not understand or feel the biting impact of corruption. If they do, they would not put up the kind of resistance we are currently witnessing in the efforts to make a success of the anti-corruption war.”
For the war against corruption to succeed, Ribadu charged all Nigerians to get involved as responsible citizens, using the availability of modern technology tools and advocacies to make far-reaching impact in terms of policy and decision-making.