Morenike Taire
8 January 2009
opinion
IT is an unforgettable sight, that of PDP chieftain, Olabode George, when he was arrested by the EFCC early last year.
He looked more like a Winnie Mandela being hurled off to prison for fighting against human rights abuses in apartheid South Africa with the smug smile of assured victory on his military lips and his hands swinging up every so often in the signature fist that said: Power to the people!
His supporters, on their part, cheered at every opportunity. Never has such a mockery been made of a nation's law enforcement worse than this slap on the face by this leading figure.
And it is becoming all the vogue. Like George, Femi Fani Kayode, minister under the Obasanjo administration, is shown on national television to strut in and out of the courtroom as though he were some sort of human rights hero and not a man being indicted by the EFCC of not only abusing power, but of allegedly using the same power to perpetrate crime.
His handsome face is lit by the famous gap-toothed smile, and not even the announcement that he would be spending Christmas in jail diminished the brightness of his beam. With a beam that bright, you actually do not need Christmas lights.
It can be argued, of course, that it is only an indictment, and all the crap can be invoked of how a man is innocent until proven guilty. Certainly, things have changed considerably from the days when Ekiti State's Fayose, deposed and stripped of his immunity, was brought to court alongside his cohorts by the Ribadu-led EFCC. The disposition of the latter was somber and actually scared. The men actually looked as if they were actually in trouble.
What then has changed between the perception of the accuseds under Ribadu and the same under new boss, Farida Waziri, are, decidedly, different.
There is every reason to believe that accused persons under Ribadu were actually afraid that they could actually be prosecuted (after all, Tafa Balogun was) and their names become metaphors for stealing forever.
No one, no matter how bad, would like their stomachs, like Balogun's to become the simile for the stomach of a thief. On the other hand, accused persons under Waziri are virtually assured that the whole thing is merely a jamboree which would end sooner or later with the arrest of the next actor in the never-ending tragicomedy.
Yet, unfortunately, this is not necessarily a tribute to the effectiveness of Ribadu and his EFCC. Many Nigerians were worried, and with good cause, that Obasanjo's anti-corruption crusade by Ribadu was selective and was in danger of being merely a tool for fighting the president's political enemies.
The greater fear for EFCC's effectiveness under Ribadu might, therefore, be as much a result of the man's no-compromise stance as a fear for the well known ruthlessness of the erstwhile principal of Ribadu, General Olusegun Obasanjo.
Ribadu's present and continued disgrace, less than being a testimony to his goodness, appears more and more like a falling out between him and his handlers of old on the one hand, and the vengeance of their enemies on the other.
Still, on a personal basis, it is virtually impossible to connect Ribadu to any criminal wrong-doing, and this is why attempts have not been made to do so with all the allegations levelled against him to justify his dismissal from the Police have been flippant, at best. For this reason, the public perception of the EFCC.
The persecution of Ribadu is bringing down the perception index of the ECFF, and matters are not being helped if people indicted by the body are looking so happy to be so.
f the Yar'Adua administration is serious about fighting corruption-and we believe it is, it has to take the very vital step of reversing all the indignities visited on Nuhu Ribadu, so that the dignity of the EFCC will be restored.
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