It is probably not the best of times for two former anti-corruption czars – the pioneer Chairman of the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission, Mallam Nuhu Ribadu, and his successor, Mrs Farida Waziri.
As senior police officers, their diligence and dedication to duty must have placed them in good stead for the appointment above their peers at the time they held the office. But the recent washing of their dirty linen in the media casts a dent on their public image and calls into question the effectiveness of the nation’s anti-corruption struggle.
To be specific, the claims and counter-claims have been too weighty to be ignored.
The face-off started with Ribadu firing the first salvo in September, when he described Waziri as “a desperate and ignorant woman.” He was reacting to Waziri’s response to
former President Olusegun Obasanjo’s allegation that she was a crony of jailed former
Governor of Delta State, James Ibori and that her tenure as EFCC chairman reduced the
credibility of the anti-graft agency built over the years by Ribadu.
Denying the allegation, Waziri had threatened to expose Obasanjo, adding that the EFCC, under Ribadu, was used to propagate Obasanjo’s botched third term agenda. But in another response, Ribadu said, “It is saddening that after all the damage inflicted on the operations and credibility of the EFCC by Mrs. Waziri, she turns back to abuse the young men and women who had put in all their energy in cleaning up our country, especially
during that critical time, by dismissing their work and sacrifice.
“It is sad that the merchants of falsehood keep recycling crooked statements to the point of cliche, in spite of attempts at clarifications.” He further said that Waziri’s claim that he served under her was a naked lie, which she kept flaunting to seek undue relevance and
validate her own appointment.
“At no time in my career did I work under the same section or unit as her,” Ribadu said. He argued that, contrary to her claims, he actually lectured her and others on fraud investigation and prosecution, despite being his senior in rank, when she was posted to head the Special Fraud Unit.
But last Saturday in Abuja, in response to Ribadu’s outburst, Waziri again accused him of “enjoying the wealth of people he once described as corrupt.” Describing Ribadu as a “double faced” man who “lacks principles,”
Waziri, who also trained as a lawyer, asked the former EFCC boss to explain to Nigerians
what happened to the billions of naira and assets recovered during his tenure as the chairman of the anti-graft agency.
She added, “There should be a life after EFCC. If after eight years of being removed as EFCC chairman, he (has) yet to move on with life, even after two successive chairmen
had occupied the same seat and moved on with their lives, then his problem may be psychogenic.
“If Ribadu (has) yet to face the reality that EFCC is a Federal Government agency and
not a personal estate of anybody eight years after, I find it compelling to remind him, otherwise one day he would wake up to blame me for his defeat in the 2011 presidential election and even his pathetic outing in the 2015 governorship election in Adamawa State despite the slush funds deployed to ensure his victory at the polls.”
She added that Ribadu’s lust for power, inordinate ambition and desperation for political relevance had continued to push him to dine and wine with, and even enjoy the wealth of those he had labelled as corrupt in yesteryears.
“He can’t hold me responsible for his double face, lack of principle and complex contradictions in his character,” Waziri said. Although Ribadu’s reaction to the latest salvo from Waziri was terse, the content of their verbal exchange leaves much to be desired. It also probably shines some light on certain shady aspects of our nation’s chequered fight against corruption. If at a time many Nigerians still refer to Ribadu’s tenure at the EFCC as one of the country’s finest, a colleague, who had occupied the same seat, is asking weighty questions around recovered loots under his watch, then Nigerians must take a second look at the sincerity of the country’s anti-corruption struggle.
Some have called on ‘elders of thought’ to put heads together and call the duo to order before their face-off leads to something rather untoward for themselves and for the nation’s overall wellbeing. But we would advise the Federal Government to pay more than a passing attention to the claims and counter-claims, particularly as they relate to the nation’s wealth and recovered “billions and assets.” Leaving the accusations hanging in the air may spell disaster for the nation’s much-celebrated anti corruption crusade.
