Adol Ugorji
26 November 2008
analysis
MALLAM NUHU RIBADU is a man of unique combination of talents. A lawyer and administrator, Nuhu has a lot of personal charm, a fund of humour combined with a strength of character, intellectual precision, and the determination to do the impossible.
One thing special about him is his quality of respecting both the big and small, and also his loyal reception of official instructions.
These attributes endeared him to his friends, and thus sustained him in his chosen career. Nuhu had a strict Muslim upbringing and not minding his comfortable background as a son of a First Republic minister, Alhaji Mohammadu Ribadu, he had performed his duties creditably well and thereafter rose to his present position as the Assistant Inspector-General of Police.
No wonder when former President Olusegun Obasanjo planned to push on with his administration's anti-corruption crusade, Atiku Abubakar, the former Vice-President, recommended Mallam Nuhu, and he was subsequently appointed to chair the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission, EFCC. Nuhu, who prior to the appointment was not well known, became a cynosure in his own right. The sensitivity of his job made him to distance himself from a lot of people, not because he hated anyone but because he wanted to do his job to the best of his knowledge.
Many who wanted his cooperation to cover their loots misunderstood his official behaviour and thus became uncomfortable and perhaps disappointed in him. Some indeed understood him to be disrespectful, insensitive and arrogant. Still, as many of these people knew that they cannot swallow smoothly their loots without his cooperation, they tried to appease him by other means which he refused to budge.
Because Mallam Nuhu wanted results to justify the confidence reposed in him, he moved on with his job without fear or favour, knowing very well that corruption is the bane of Nigeria's fledging democracy. He was, however, able to move ahead and maintained himself because he enjoyed the full protection of his former boss, Chief Obasanjo.
The former EFCC boss investigated many Nigerians, including former governors, ministers, heads of government bodies, etc, and above all perfected plans to lead an investigation into one of Nigeria's 'untouchables.' We overheard that Mallam Nuhu even made scathing remarks about this institution in a public lecture in the UK which made him to be listed as one of the 'stupid boys' that deserves to be punished.
We learnt that Nuhu's remarks made him enemies among a group of retired army officers who wished to return their strongman to active politics.
The former governors allied with ministers, some of them who helped President Yar'Adua to ascend to the throne, to rubbish Nuhu, accusing him of noisy exhibitionism, over-assertiveness, too-know air, an over-weening pride, and to a patronizing and condescending attitude towards them.
Be that as it may, corruption and corrupt practices became a matter of politics and was politicised that
many affected Nigerians were struggling to absolve themselves of their indictments. And because some of these Ngerians refused to support Obasanjo's third term bid, the former President sent Nuhu to go after them, a situation that earned Mallan Nuhu the nickname 'the mad dog' of Obasanjo.
Why is Mallam Nuhu resented and hated by the political class today.
I think the basic explanation is that the establishment of the Nigerian state, with its power politics and its competitive economic system, has brought about the best and the worst in Nuhu and exposed Nigerians to it. The best in him excites resentment and the worst in him excites hatred. And I am sure he is endowed by nature with a liberal measure of both.
If the truth must be told, superior people in corrupt societies are generally hated. Mallam Nuhu did not recognise the handwriting on the wall, first, that a man who wishes to make a profession of goodness in everything must necessarily come to grief among so many who are not good.
Second, he miscalculated that President Umaru Yar'Adua would give him same protection as his former boss did.The Police leadership and its rank and files wanted its pound of flesh, as they rightly or wrongly thought that Mallam Nuhu's accelerated promotion in the Force led to the retirement of many of their finest officers.
Mallam Nuhu's sudden rise in the Force was so packaged to prepare him for a prominent role in President Yar'Adua's administration, but it is like the President is not interested, as Nuhu tended to question his activities as governor despite the timely intervention of Chief Obasanjo. The Turaki Adamawa, Atiku Abubakar, even as he is not among those who wanted his boy crucified, is nonetheless not very impressed, for he along with many others, may be thinking that Nuhu was ungrateful.
One irony of fate about Nuhu's promotion and demotion saga is that the same Police Service Commission which promoted him is the one demoting him. Could that have been a mistake. No, this is Ngeria where every kind of injustice is possible especially when it could be applied to achieve an effect.There is no doubt in my mind that the recent re-visit of Ribadu's career records by the Police leadership had the ulterior motive of stopping him from not only playing the prominent role envisaged for him by his former boss, but also to render him horse de combat.
Mallam Nuhu's ordeal started with his conflict of interest with Mr Mike Aandooka, the Attorney General of the Federation who insisted that as the chief law officer of Nigeria Nuhu was under his authority and must take orders from him. The argument was legally perfect but it is without ulterior motives. Again, the EFCC has been further frustrated by some sections of the judiciary who kept applying legal snags to create leeways for indicted persons to escape justice.
Political godfathers, money-bags, and contractors were enraged that Mallam Nuhu is attempting to render them irrelevant, and block their sources of financial security. The present Police leadership are not in the good frame of mind with the success story of Nuhu whom they felt that if Obasanjo's projection of the former EFCC boss had succeeded, Mike Okiro may not have been in his position today.
This, and other reasons, infuriated the Police leadership to dig deep into the records to discover that after all, the young man had not attended the National Institute of Policy and Stratgic Studies, Kuru, near Jos, and as such not yet a member of the national institute, a qualification sine qua non to the various promotions and position he had already attained. Based on this logic, Nuhu was recommended to the course which automatically relieved him of his chair of the EFCC.
A former AIG, Mallam Nuhu was demoted to a Deputy Commissioner of Police, with alleged plans to transfer his services to a rural area thereby stopping his graduation at the National Institute scheduled for November 22, 2008. Many Nigerians and international organisations had decried this situation and are now thinking that his ill-treatment for the invetigations he led as former EFCC boss is rather unbecoming.
President Yar'Adua should intervene in Mallam Ribadu's present ordeal as the father of the nation to guarntee his physical safety and security.
Many Nigerians are of the opinion that the President's continued silence over the matter is unhelpful even to him if he wants to reassure Nigerians that he is serious over the fight against corruption in Ngeria. With the way things are moving in Nigeria, there is no doubt that Nuhu will be fondly remembered for the work he did for Nigeria.
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