Lagos — We learn from history that we learn nothing from history - George Bernard Shaw

There is a legitimate anxiety in the land about the unsatisfactory pace of governance. When two or more Nigerians meet and they chat about public affairs, the topic is inexorably the tardy performance of the administration of President Umaru Yar'Adua. The catalogue of woes is obvious - poor power supply, impassable roads, collapse of public educational institutions, inadequate healthcare delivery etc. Great expectations are fast yielding to despair. Despite the gloomy picture, those of us who are incurable optimists still believe that this physical decay arising from poor governance (some may even say lack of governance at all) can be fixed within a period of time. In fact, all it requires is for Yar'Adua to begin today to implement a programme of action. Even before 2011, there would be a difference. It is all a function of the will, focus and priority of the government. After all, the existing collapsing highways, schools and some governments in the past built hospitals. So it can be done again.

However, the more profound challenge that is less talked about is the risk of moral decay. This should worry us even more than the physical decay of infrastructure and collapse of institutions. The reason is that it is more difficult to remake a nation that collapses morally than the one that is afflicted with physical underdevelopment. It is easier to award contracts to rebuild roads or establish new institutions than to cure moral perversion that is being injected into the public psyche. The moral damage done to a nation, especially its youthful segment is more difficult to heal. Those who care about the future of the nation should be concerned that the line between right and wrong is not only getting thinner but also that the wrong is about swapping position with the right. This is, probably, a way to explain the ordeal of Nuhu Ribadu, the police officer, who is being punished for doing a good job fighting corruption in the private and public sectors. The external impact of his work has also been acknowledged. President Olusegun Obasanjo gave him the job of fighting corruption as Chairman of the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC). He put into it all the passion, commitment and patriotism he could summon.

Ribadu, of course, is no angel. In the course of duty he made not a few mistakes especially in matters of style. His passion was read in some quarters, with some justification, as over-zealousness. Obasanjo himself did not help matters especially after the misadventure of seeking a third term in office. After all, he once threatened a political opponent on the hustings with unleashing EFCC against him. Some of those against whom EFCC under Ribadu moved happened to be, coincidentally, political enemies of Obasanjo. Yet, what cannot be obliterated from the history of EFCC is that warts and all Ribadu, giving leadership to his team in the agency, gave anti-corruption campaign enormous credibility.

To be sure, Yar'Adua has the power to hire whoever he wants to do the job of anti-corruption campaign based on the law establishing EFCC. But in an avoidably clumsy manner, the administration removed Ribadu by sending him to the National Institute of Policy and Strategic Studies (NIPSS) in Kuru. In the confusion about what to do with Ribadu the Police Service Commission demoted him. Only at the weekend, there was the show of shame in Kuru as security men dragged Ribadu and members of his family out the hall so that he would not receive his diploma. About this time last year, the argument was that he needed to pursue the course for his professional advancement. Yesterday, his bosses at the police headquarters gave him three queries. Although there may be a slow pace in other activities of government, yet when it comes to the persecution and humiliation of Ribadu you can see a burst of activities by those in power. The public sphere is being polluted by the manner the Ribadu question is being resolved by the Nigerian state and its agents. Since the administration has removed Ribadu from its equation of fighting corruption why not leave him alone and let us see what credibility the new approach will garner?

It is astonishing that in the face of enormous security challenges before Inspector-General Mike Okiro and the police establishment, they could find so much time to devote to the question of whether a police officer wears uniform in a ceremony. Couldn't the time and energy spent on devising how to humiliate Ribadu have been better expended on strategizing against the siege mounted on the nation by armed robbers? If a police officer has flouted any service rule or procedure is there no decent way of sanctioning him. Can there be a justification to the meanness and depravity on display all in the name of whipping Ribadu into line. It is even more frightening that all that is happening to Ribadu is exactly making good a threat issued sometime ago to Ribadu on phone by a former governor facing massive corruption charges in court. This speaks volumes about those who influence the affairs of the Nigerian state at the moment. If there is no mischief, why devoting so much attention to the humiliation of one police officer?

The Attorney-General (and let us quickly add, the Chief Law Officer of the Federation), Michael Aondoakaa, is not tired lecturing us about rule of law especially when big businessmen and political office holders are being held accountable. It is not enough for him to say that despite his presence in Kuru when Ribadu was manhandled his hands are clean. What does he say to the fact any citizen when in or out of uniform is being persecuted for seeking justice in court? Does this have to do with rule of law? For clarity, if the authorities or any agency has any evidence of a crime against Ribadu let the laws be applied and let everyone see justice done. But let there be a stop to his harassment and humiliation in the most amateurish and mischievous manner.

The manner in which Aondoakaa and Okiro have handled the Ribadu question is such that Yar'Adua can no longer ignore because of the moral signals it sends out there. The authority of the state does not only rest on the use of force. There is also the moral authority. The German idealist philosopher, Fredrick Hegel, even went to the extent of saying that the state is the moral and spiritual embodiment of the nation. This is the aspect that should warrant the attention of Yar'Adua. He should stop this perversion of the moral order in which a man is being punished for fighting corruption amidst the hubris of those he moved against. No President should tolerate this state of affairs. Not least President Yar'Adua who, in his inaugural speech on May 29 last year, harped on the moral fabric of the nation and promised to give moral leadership. It is not a good moral signal to young people being recruited into public life as policemen, soldiers, politicians or civil servants that the ultimate prize you get for doing your job with a passion is persecution. What moral message are Ribadu's persecutors sending out there by humiliating someone who should be a model of commitment in public service?

The popular perception is that Ribadu is a victim of oppressive use of power. Ordinarily, you would think that the lesson of our recent history is the folly of arrogance of power. This, however, appears not be the case. Ribadu should take solace in the slogan of the anti-fascist coalition in the 1930s in Europe: All these Shall Pass.