Innocent Anaba
28 November 2008
interview
Mr Joseph Daudu, Senior Advocate of Nigeria, is our guest for the week.
In this interview, he berated federal government for its recent clampdown on the media, saying "no matter what the offence of a media house may be, no person or agency, no matter how high or well to do he may be, has any powers under the constitution to put an erring media agency under lock and key".
He added that "even if the charge against the media house is sedition, it does not under the present constitution invite a closure, the highest measure is to charge the offender to court and await the outcome of the court".
On the suspended Director of the National Finance Intelligence Unit of the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission, over failure to report to the chair of the commission,looted funds that are still leaving the country on a daily basis, he said "heads ought to roll in other security and investigative units. Government and indeed the leadership of this administration must be seen to be above board and to enforce the existing anti-corruption laws".
Daudu does not believe that the judiciary should be blamed for the length of time it takes to conclude election matter in the country, insisting that the source or solution to the problem is neither the tribunal nor the court, but the electoral process that needs to be overhauled. On the 31 missing files which contain the concluded investigation on past governors, he said that former chairman of the commission, Nuhu Ribadu and the present management of EFCC, Farida Waziri, to whom it is alleged the files were handed over to, should tell Nigerians what happened.
Chairman of the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission, Mrs Farida Waziri, was quoted as saying recently that looted funds in billions of naira are still leaving the country on a daily basis. The reports said that for failing to alert the commission, the Director in charge of the National Finance Intelligence Unit (NFIU) at the commission, had been placed on indefinite suspension. What does this portend for the country?
Your question symbolises the problem of Nigeria, which is official corruption. It is endemic. Mrs Waziri was only saying the obvious which is that billions of Naira was leaving the shores of Nigeria on a daily basis. With profound respect, that is not the issue, as it is obvious from the lack of any visible infrastructural development that the money duly budgeted and released, amounting to trillions of Naira so far in the life of this administration is going somewhere and Mrs Waziri has only identified where it is going.
I think Nigerians are in reality, more interested in knowing the beneficiaries of the transfers or remittances, the accounts from where they were removed and whether the culprits will be investigated and visited with the consequences or penalty of such a conduct. This is not beyond our security agencies to decipher but in a situation where such operatives also want to 'arrive' or 'make it' overnight, it is not difficult to see why and how such monies practically leave Nigeria undetected and unmolested.
The consequence for Nigeria is pathetic and leaves us in a predictably dangerous position.
At this point in time, we are left open to a variety of negative scenario that normally envelopes corrupt nations. Finally on this point, it is not enough to make a scapegoat of the Director of the National Finance Intelligence Unit, heads ought to roll in other security and investigative units. Government and indeed the leadership of this administration must be seen to be above board and to enforce the existing anti-corruption laws.
What does this portend for the country's fight against corruption, if some personnel in the anti-corruption agency either by omission or commission are abetting corruption?
It generally means that the country and particularly the leaders who are engaged in corruption are grossly insecure. The common denominator being money, the loyalty of these leaders can only be assured through the payment of extra payouts to these officials. What it means is that security officials and the leaders are partners in crime; this symbiotic relationship can only wax stronger because such conspiratorial relationship is on the rise without any check in sight. However, should anyone pay more, these security personnel may even jeopardise the safety of our high government officials.
What this means is that in the main, there is no longer any professionalism in these agencies. Everyone is out to make cheap money. In reality, what we have are not security agencies but a mercenary outfit. It is impossible to envisage a proper implementation of the 'Rule of Law' in the discharge by government of its programs and plans.
Former EFCC chairman, Malam Nuhu Ribadu, was on Saturday, prevented from passing out at the National Institute for Policy and Strategic Studies by the security operative, who forced him out of the venue of graduation ceremony. What is your reaction to this?
I do not have all the details, but there is indeed more than meets the eye. The question does not say which arm of security operatives forced him out of the ceremony, all I know is that the National Institute of Policy and Strategic Studies is a statutory institution which statutorily prescribes rules for the admission, discipline and graduation of students.
You will recall that Ribadu was admitted as an Assistant Inspector General of Police, the minimum requirement for a police officer to study at Kuru. In the course of his studies, he was reportedly demoted to the rank of Deputy Commissioner of Police on the ground that his earlier promotion was irregular and not in line with existing police Rules.
The new rank of DCP is a rank far below the prescribed qualifying rank for admission to NIPPS. At this point Ribadu adamantly chose to continue to study at Kuru, when he knew that DCP's do not study at Kuru and are not admitted there. It seems to me that he should have withdrawn from Kuru at that point and with humility gone back to his police duties.
It appears to me that his resistance to his 'demotion', although it cannot be called a demotion as he was never lawfully an Assistant Inspector General of Police, is borne out of his inability to reconcile his fall from the exalted office of Chairman of the EFCC where he was acting as an alternate Inspector General of Police, arresting and prosecuting Tafa Balogun etc, to the not so exalted rank of Deputy Commissioner of Police.
Hence he sued his employers, the Police, on a matter in respect of which he had not finished exhausting the internal dispute resolution mechanism which process is not limited to but includes the possibility of an appeal to the President of the Federal Republic of Nigeria before heading straight for the courts to challenge the actions of his employers.
One thinks that the press should be more incisive in their inquiries and less sentimental or judgmental in their opinions. All that glitters is really not gold.
Is forcing Ribadu out of the venue of the graduation the best way to handle the situation, even if for any reason, government or NIPSS did not want him to graduate, should they not have contacted him, some days to the event, instead of forcing him out of the venue in the full glare of all and does this not negate the principles of the so-called due process and rule of law of the federal government?
If you were holding a lavish party and an uninvited ragamuffin were to appear uninvited, what would you do? Would you file an action in court before ejecting him from your premises? There are two things the press should do. First, hear the official version of NIPPS and second, compare NIPPS version with the already established facts. The issue of due process and rule of law are principles of justice used or employed in clearly defined situations. They are not to be employed in petty instances where a person is denied admission to a graduation party.
Some have argued that Ribadu was used during his tenure as EFCC chairman, while some also argue that even though he was used, that all those the commission prosecuted during his tenure had cases to answer. But with what Ribadu is going through now, do we expect the present chair of the EFCC be encouraged to take the fight against corruption serious, since tomorrow, if there is a change in government, those she prosecuted may also call for her head?
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