Ikeddy Isiguzo
29 November 2008
opinion
FEW would want to be in the smouldering shoes of Mallam Nuhu Ribadu. The headlines may be all about him, the controversy may be raging, the courts are having their say and everyone appears to have something to say about the man whose name once pieced many hearts with terror, but he must have sober moment to look himself again.
He must be looking forward to waking up from a dream that has become a nightmare in broad day light.
As the Chairman of the Economic ad Financial Crimes Commission, EFCC, Ribadu sowed plenteously. He talked at anyone, threatened to hurl governors into jail when they leave office.
At a time, he said 31 of the 36 governors then were candidates for places in jail, only their immunity was the obstacle.
Some applauded, others jeered. When he took on former Vice President Atiku Abubakar, some said he could not, the man had immunity. Some tweaking of the law left the impression that Ribadu was in order.
There were suggestions that Ribadu was politicising matters. We all knew that precious very little is done without politics, sanctimoniously dubbed political will.
He was fighting corruption, a word that defies interpretation in many Nigerian languages. This too meant that officially corruption was interpreted in a manner that suited the purposes of the regime he served, which made a song and dance of Due Process - whatever that really means.
Ribadu was a deity. You chose how to deal with him at your own peril. Either he was loquacious or the media found a way to present him in that mode. He never objected.
He even appeared to court the image of a film producer that required massive publicity for every mega blockbuster he threw to the public.
Those who complained about his rapid rise from a Deputy Commissioner of Police to an Assistant Inspector General in less than transparent circumstances were termed ribald. They retreated to silence.
A good excuse for Ribadu's ascendancy was that the fight against corruption was too important to bother with the intricacies of law and order.
If you objected too strongly to the growing lawlessness, you were either corrupt, planning to be corrupt, or a possible beneficiary of the proceeds of corrupt practices.
Ribadu was belligerent, querulous, petulant, imperious, impervious, imperial, impetuous and dared anyone to prove him wrong. Who dared? Everyone wanted to have Ribadu in his corner, it made sense because in those days, the biggest threat to anyone was to call in the EFCC.
People dreaded him. He thought he was loved. Some Nigerians goaded him on, some hinting that he should be the President some day to wean Nigerians of their proclivity for corruption.
He was one of the few saints in Nigeria , often asking people to produce proof of his own corruption. He might not have seen abuse of his powers as corruption, again conditions apply.
When he warehoused members of the Bayelsa State House of Assembly in Lagos , until they agreed to sign impeachment proceedings against then Governor Depriye Alameseigha, nothing was wrong with that.
He replicated the process in Plateau State . Some state legislatures could not form quorum for their business because Ribadu had taken some of their members away.
Court orders were obeyed at his discretion. The EFCC was bold, brutal brash and bloody. Nigerian looked in awe as EFCC carefully picked its targets. Some said only the enemies of the then President Olusegun Obasanjo were harassed. Ribadu could counter that with a list that showed that he was fighting corruption.
He was rude and made an art of his peculiar rudeness. He had a caustic tongue that condemned his victims before they had a chance to say a word for themselves.
Things have changed. Ribadu is reaping bountiful harvest from the plentiful fields he amply sowed. He appears to be the one complaining about people not obeying the law. Law is an ass some say, it is meant for riding, mostly for someone's delight at moments like this.
Ribadu is discovering that he could breach many laws without knowing, but again many think he is too wise, a lawyer to boot, not to know the import, importance, implication and now complication of where he got himself.
Queries lined up for him, his court cases, and the certainty of an uncertain career, are all hallmarks of a once promising police officer who has justified the fears in some quarters that he is rising was too rushed to have afforded him the pace to absorb the nuances of policing.
Attempts to use him as the benchmark for anti-corruption wars persist, but they are wearing thin. Corruption is dealt with officiously these days, no more, possibly a better approach than the boorish pretences of the past few years.
Whatever happens to Ribadu, he would remain a reference point on how we used to fight corruption. He fought truculently, tempestuously. He swirled storms that splashed directionlessly.
Chances are that if he knows as much as some suspect he knows, he could be detached from the rambunctious affairs of these moments to decided anonymity.
Fifteen years after, he could write a tell it all book, from which we could glean that the President was unaware, uninvolved in his predicaments.
Launching date could be 22 November 2023, the 15th anniversary of the day he graduated from the Nigerian Institute for Policy and Strategic Studies under somewhat historic circumstances.
We have a living example of this approach in Professor Humphrey Nwosu's account of the 12 June 1993 presidential election, released only last June 12.
It is yet morning on the lengthening possibilities for Ribadu. He could still have a future that is so blindingly bright that he would require sunshades: on this, he does not have to consult Professor Nwosu.
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