When a crime is not punished quickly, people feel it is safe to do wrong: Ecclesiastes,8:11
We have banished history from our
schools but that does not preclude individuals from preserving and recalling
historical records. The weird dance between EFCC and Yahaya Belo has reminded
me of this article I wrote in June 2018,
which built on an earlier article of 2007 and that is where we will start this
intervention.
If
Prof Utomi agrees to supervise me, I will go for another doctoral degree on Institutions
and Economic Development and write my thesis on The mediating
effect of political activities on the perceived effectiveness of EFCC
with the key hypothesis as: There is a significant and positive
relationship between political activities and the perceived effectiveness of
EFCC. I have peeped into the my skin-bag with the proverbial eye of an
elder and I can declare without equivocation subject to my supervisor’s
concurrence, that the above topic is researchable and that it will contribute
immensely to knowledge in the field of governance and political economy. But
that’s by the way.
On
4/3/07, the Justice, Peace and
Development Commission, Lagos, invited
me to speak on EFCC: Democracy’s best friend or worst enemy, as a
part of its Annual Week. For those who might have forgotten, OBJ established
the EFCC in 2003 to underline his declaration that it would no longer be
business as usual in the war against corruption. But as at 2007, there
was a consensus that EFCC had derailed largely because it redefined its mandate
to became the koko in the political landscape. It was involved in
impeachments, disqualification of candidates, and determination of the kind of
leaders Nigeria needed. It also appropriated judicial powers and became an arm
of the amorphous presidency. The EFCC became an impeachment consultant
and enforcer in Bayelsa where legislooters served impeachment
notice on the Governor General of Ijaw nation from EFCC cell in Lagos; in Jos
where only 6 were empowered to impeach the governor, in Ekiti where it ended up
in state of emergency and in Adamawa where it failed to click.
The
EFCC also did a lot of summersaults and suffered from selective amnesia
especially as it affected the probe of IBB, the number of corrupt governors
which was as the spirit directed, screening of political
aspirants, whether Ebeano Nnamani was corrupt or not, and whether
to act only on petitions, on allegations or as directed. Of course, its star
war was against Atiku, which extended to his tenants, classmates, his newspaper
vendors and just anybody. I narrowly escaped being probed just because I went
on an excursion to his American University of Nigeria in Yola. The EFCC’s
record on rule of law was woeful as it detained people as it pleased (or as it
pleased the master), treated court orders with contempt, convicted people whose
cases were not even in court and worse of all, it was an illegal
offspring as it started operations before it was legalized. It also
became short or long sighted depending on who was involved. Thus it did not
notice the COJA ( All African Games,
October 2003) contracts, El-Rufai’s indictment by the National Assembly,
petitions against Kwankwaso, or the embarrassing 3rd term bribery.
Its list of death (a list of banned politicians) showed EFCC at
its best: There were many versions of the list; some already in
court for corruption were not on the list while some not yet charged to court
made the list, including those indicted by OBJs panel even while the courts had
not made pronouncements. Of course, Atiku was the numero-uno on
the list, which formed the bases of INECs questionable disqualifications and
the political rigmarole of 2007.
In
the aforesaid 2007 paper, I called some witnesses, including Senator Nnamani
who declared that the war against corruption was lopsided, warning that no
corrupt politician is more important than the other!; Human Rights
Watch, which declared that the anti-corruption efforts had lost much of
their credibility because the EFCC selectively indicted some candidates and not
others whom it had acknowledged as meriting investigation; Vincent Obia
who reminded us how EFCC radar eluded Andy Uba, despite his confessions that
money was illegally deployed to rig elections in Anambra State (Sunday
Independent ,3/3/05) and Peter Clever Opara who drew a parallel between
the hounding roles of Napoleon’s dogs as he strived for unfettered power in the
Animal Kingdom and the role of the EFCC in subverting the laws of the land to
please its master(Sunday Independent 11/2/07 pB12). Other witnesses
included Abukakar Tsav who argued that since the politicians did not
follow due process in their lootocracy, there was no need for EFCC to follow
due process in dealing with them but advised Ribadu to talk less,
work more and leave the job of pronouncing his victims guilty to the courts(TheNews,
26/6/06); Atiku Abubakar who lamented that while EFCC claimed it was
investigating Jefferson, the name did not appear anywhere in its final report while he ( Atiku) was
mentioned 19 times, concluding that ..EFCC has become a willing tool in
the hands of my traducers!(TheNews, 2/10/06,p22). The Sun condemned the
undue bravado and arbitrariness which the EFCC has brought to bear on its
job… as it has expanded its operational horizon… prosecutes and passes
judgments… and noted particularly that it was relying on the PTDF
report which had been set aside by 3 courts..(TheSunEditorial,12/2/07).
Femi Adesina was the Editor in Chief then( I don’t think he will toe this line
again) . Chief Umezeoke, Chairman of Buhari’s ANPP drew global attention to the conscienceless
double standard in which Goodluck Jonathan, no 9 in the original EFCC
list was eventually forgiven and canonized, an accusation endorsed by ANPP when
it declared that EFCC has been turned into a haunting dog against
PDP opponents (Vanguard, 8/2/07,p15). In the opinion of The Nation,
the EFCC turned itself into the policeman detailed to go after the
president’s enemies... Its harshest criticism was for Ribadu who
carried his functions with messianic airs (Editorial, 22/3/07)
With
all these evidences, I indicted EFCC for leaving the economic/financial field
and positioning itself in the 18-yard box of the political pitch,
creating the indelible impression that it was an instrument of presidential
warfare, engaging in self-destructive double talks, forgetting some issues
while working overtime on others and forming an unholy
alliance with INEC. I concluded that EFCC had done more harm to the political
process; heightening the political tension and polluting the usually troubled political
waters and that it could therefore not be a friend to democracy!
That was in 2007
11
years later and as we entered another electoral season, I was reminded of my
2007 paper by the statement ( 22/5/18) of Victor Uwaje, Special Anti-corruption
Investigator, that he was fired for refusing to go after Atiku, Saraki,
Wike, and Ekweremadu . This surely sounds similiar! EFCC suddenly become very active again, dealing with some of its regular customers
like Patience Jonathan, Shakarau, Jang and Olisa Metu who was handcuffed like a
dangerous and unrepentant criminal. It also decided to conduct a forensic
examination of OBJs power projects just because PMB asked: where is the
power (and this was 11 years after it had probed OBJ). EFCC also has
newer customers like Eze Iyamu, Lucky Imasuen, Gamawa, and Yaro. But before
then, Lai Mohammed, usurping the power of the judiciary, released a list of
looters, including those who are yet to be accused and excluding Mrs Madueke, whom
the Government had been haranguing for the previous three years, Uzor Kalu who
is on trial and Lawal, the grass-cutter who had been sacked on
account of corruption. Of course, the PDP released its own list and it is left
for the reader to compare the two lists. It is also alleged that EFCC deployed
its operatives to intimidate and harass contractors handling projects in some
PDP-controlled states. We are now in the era of politics of arrest (Comrade
Odeyemi 18/6/18) or according to PDP, a police-state where any Nigerian,
who holds a divergent view to PMBs 2019 re-election bid, becomes endangered..
One
can safely conclude that as it was in 2007 so it also was in 2018. However, as a doctoral
student in this area, I have made some critical observations. EFCC still has
issues with legality. It started operations before it was legalized and today,
the EFCC boss is on duty without his appointment being duly legalized. In 2007,
PDP was in charge and others were complaining. Today, APC is in charge and PDP
is the leading complainant, reminding us that no condition is permanent.
Furthermore, the Police, is more active today than before. Those whom the EFCC
has nothing against or is not eager to go after, the police steps in and all of
them are usually accused of murder/gun-running
(Shehu Sani, Dino Melaye and Bukola Sariki) and more of such charges should be
expected. I hope I will not soon be charged with the murder of Dele Giwa. In
2007, it was the list of death and today, it is the list of
looters and both lists raised more questions than answers. The most
important lesson is that those who create and manipulate institutions for
self-serving purposes, may one day become victims of such institutions, just
like the person who rides atop a tiger ending up in its belly’.
I have just reviewed the activities of EFCC within
the political ecosystem between 2007 and 2018, as a prelude to 2024, the year
of Yahaya Bello. But there are still issues in between that I need to ‘retouch’
so as to ‘conclude the conclusion’. The
audacity of the corrupt, especially PEPs was exemplified in the case of ‘one James Ononafe Ibori’
who returned from UK prison and his
people rolled out golden carpets in one of the most expensive welcome parties
of those days. I painted the scenario thus ‘Our sense of shame quotient
has fallen so low that while those who do evil things do not come to the light
because they do not want their evil deeds to be seen (John 3:22-23), Nigerian
evil doers covet the light and dance brazenly in the market square because they
know that nothing will happen as those who can make something to happen either
have corpses in their cupboards, or they worship in the same alter. At worse,
the person will decamp from one party to another and immediately, old
things become anew( 2 Cor,5:17). The seats and corridors of power are
occupied by people some of whom are so stained that the devil will be ashamed
to consort with them and yet, they continuously make public sanctimonious
admonitions’(James Ibori: We Still Have A Long Way To Go, 5/5/17)..In
his heydays as EFCC Boss Ribadu who carried his functions with messianic
airs and carriage of a monarch who has the power of life and death…highly
unmindful of the dictates of the law (The Nations Editorial, 22/3/07),
released a contentious list of the MOST Corrupt Governors( September 2006). Today, he is working for and
with them, including Oga at the Very Top, Secretary to the
Government, and others in the old peoples home or house of sin( Sinnate)
Anyway,
in 2019, Adam Oshiomhole, (the first
Adam ate a local apple but this one went for a foreign apple!!!), a man who is down to earth (or close to the
ground) and has a way with words propounded his doctrine. As he received some PDP decampees
at the APC Presidential Campaign in Benin on Thursday 17/1/19, Oshiomhole
declared unabashedly that ‘once you join the APC, your sins are forgiven’ As the National Chairman of APC, he knew what he was talking about, especially
as he knew the integrity-overload
weighing down those members jumping in from PDP. And the APC faithful, (including
EFCC operatives) had kept faith with that theory even after they threw
Oshiomhole under the bus, Of course, there were some exceptions like the case
of Okorocha. Akpabio was arrested first on 16/10/15 over N108bn ‘petty fraud’
when he was in PDP He then decamped,
became Minister of the Niger Delta affairs where he did mightier deeds than
before and it is still pending. The EFCC invited him in April 2023 over multiple fraud cases and his lawyer replied that he
had gone to treat pneumonia overseas and would respond when he returned from medical tourism and the rest is history. By
that time the Oshiomhole theory had
become operational. What of Beta Edu and her predecessor in the ‘Misery’
of Humanitarian Affairs? It was
rumoured that Edu has been cleared! What of Hidi Sirika who hoodwinked the
whole world with Nigeria Air; fake plane, fake launching, guaranteed ALL loses
for just 5% stake and who had the
wizardry to compromise Ethiopian
Airlines, a world-class organization? How about Abubakar Malami whose children
are now the biggest entrepreneurs in Nigeria from nowhere? How about all the
accused who are in this BATified government, including Metawale,
who is also accused of being a Bokoharamist? Their sins have been
forgiven! Why is it that EFCC never looked in the direction of oil subsidy,
turn around maintenance and oil theft? It has been reported that about $25bn was spent between
2013 and 2023 on the refineries, which are still NOT working! Why is it that
beyond Emefiele nobody has been held over Buhari’s willful destruction of
Nigeria Economy?
All
this cropped up because of the case of the youthful Yahaya Bello. He was
originally accused of N80-somthing billion. They went to arrest
him and he literally vanished. The tally is now higher than N110bn and he
walked into the EFCC office, walked away and the EFCC then started pursing
him. The same EFCC that jumped in
through the roof like a thief in the night to arrest Okorocha( 24/5/22) could
not seize a fellow whom the gods used
remote control to lead to their office!! He had even asked the President to
intervene and now, his son-Governor is leading some other governors
to challenge the constitutionality of the laws establishing EFCC. I hope that
you are not surprised that it was originally filed by Kogi state, which has an ex-governor’s
office within the government house, who asked his people to obey the
ex-governor rather than himself. Well
politics has also intermingled with the anti-EFCC case. Many governments
are withdrawing from it and in Benue, the Attorney General was suspended over
the matter
EFCC
has just gallantly arrested Dr Ifeanyi Okowa,
immediate past governor of Delta State over N1.3trn fraud from just one source:
the 13% derivation fund. This is a good one as this is the highest fraud
allegation against any Governor. That of Yahaya Bello is ordinary N100bn. If the present governor had
established the office of the IPG, and carry’s him as a luggage in the booth,
may be his story would be different. Unknown story merchants say he donated N100bn to Atiku Presidential Campaign
Team, bought the VP ticket with N8bn, had a handshake of N3bn with the
screening committee and sponsored Atiku’s tour of the 36 states. Horrendous
indeed. But what of Nwike, the Commander of 101 Water Front Brigade in PH?
As a spirit, I am sure that whatever Okowa had stollen will pale into
insignificant vis-à-vis that of Nwike. But the professional rabble rouser, who
is only happy when he makes others unhappy, is waxing stronger and chopping
more at Abuja! By the way, why are all other members of G5 at peace, walking
around freely and even preparing for 2027 elections? Well, one known
story merchant had announced that BAT had brokered a deal with them and that one of the
conditions is to exclude them from the
list of potential EFCC customers. No be
me talk this
Of course, EFCC has had a lot of legal issues including that
it started operation before the law was passed and that Ibrahim Magu was the greatest
actor in the Nigerian public service as he acted for 5 years and
despite being rejected by the Senate. Olisa Agbakoba has publicly declared
that the EFCC is an unlawful
organization, operates outside the
constitution; that its powers under
which it was established go beyond the powers of the constitution.
He also labelled them a terrorist organization since they were always
terrorizing the people. The terrorist tag is evidenced by the invasion ofUrban Radio 94.5FM Enugu on October 14, purportedly to
arrest the programme’s presenter, Favour Ekoh,
during a live broadcast; an act which NBC had publicly declared as
improper and regrettable Femi Falana has faulted his claims and I
am waiting for two of them to finish the matter
through off-court legal pugilism
but it is noteworthy that that a matter
I raised in 2007 has been reinvigorated by a SAN
EFCC
has even gone into operational Institutional afghanistanism, deliberately shooting into the bush, ignoring the goalpost They
are regaling us with their giant strides in dealing
with BobyRisky (and their fingers are about being
burnt) and Cubana Chief Priest, for
abuse of the already debased Naira. There are also several low-hanging and
easily extortable fruits in the form of Yahoo boys, where it is
hyperactive. It arrested 12 yahoo
boys at Abuja with their expensive cars( 11/7/24),95 internet fraudsters
in Warri(29/9/24) succeeded in jailing 4
of them for to 15 years in Kaduna , arrested another 33
with fake dollars in PH( 2/10/24) and forty-three from Awka and
Abakiliki who were sentenced on 23/10/24.
The EFCC is also doing great in tracking cybercrime
activities as its Chiarman said it is
the 3rd largest industry all over the world with 2328 casses daily and that Nigeria lost
$500bn to it in 2022. It appears that EFCC has become like soldiers who aply
deodorant to BH and bandits while applying pepperised petcides to IPOBians
andordinary demonstrators. They are also good at emberrasing the perceived enemies of the
people on top. When that Malta story was trending, they visited Dangote
Refinery… they did not talk to anybody, they did not arrest anybody; they
just came and left… to register an embarrasment. Probably it was a
‘show of force’ or a forewarning of what might be. They are also good at
catching , those
sponsoring protests like Ajero of NLC.
Have you ever wondered why no EFCC boss had ever left in peace? They left in pieces because they have so
intermingled with politicians that each new comer sees them as a part of the
outgone political class
Another dimension had been added to the EFCC quagmire as Primate Ayodele
of INRI Evangelical Spiritual Church has
just advised EFCC that corruption has become so Nigerianised, and gone beyond the physical realm that it
has gone beyond being fought with guns,
laws, arrests and technology. He
therefore advised that the EFCC chief must be spiritually intelligent and FORTIfied! You don’t know Ayodele? The man who
prophesied that if we voted BAT, we would see raw Pepper! And just the other day, the EFCC boss, who
had sworn to nail Yahaya Bello announced that anti-corruption enforcement would
never work in Nigeria; that jailing
corrupt politicians will worsen the problem. He said that it is not all about
throwing bombs and chasing people with armoured vehicles and machine guns. No,
it has never worked, and it will never work. We have been on the path
of enforcement for 20 years now. Would anyone tell me that corruption is abating?”(
Interaction with NOA team, 4/9/24).I
agree that more attention be given to prevention but why does he not think that
jailing yahoo boys will worsen the problem?
Anyway, EFCC and Politricks are like inextricably linked and inseparable Siamese twins . And those of us who break our heads over what EFCC does or fails to do, have you not heard about re-looting the loot? It is usually in the realm of whispers but it has not always been so. Go and read the Nation of 19/4/2010 and see how the properties seized from fallen IG, Tafa Balogun and some from the GG of Ijaw Nation were sold to fake firms. So why not stop bothering yourself about EFCC? Na dem, dem!
My FRIEND
goes home to her maker!
My friend, and one of my oliakus, Ezinne Josephine Onwuanuemenwa Osuokwu has gone to render the accounts of her stewardship to ultimate Master. She left this stressful and sinful world at the age of 91 on 9/8/24. She was a devout Catholic and lived a life of service to God and man, humility, simplicity and being her brother’s keeper . As her body is committed to mother earth on Friday, 15/11/24, I commiserate with my friend and brother, Ezeomenyilioha Basil E Osuokwu( Obassey) and his siblings on the death of their mother. Everybody attests that she fought a good fight, she kept the faith and that she has finished the race. What is left is the crown of glory and I beseech the Almighty God to have mercy on the soul of this her humble creature, who served Him to the best of her knowledge while on this side of the divide, and crown her accordingly.
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“Find a great mentor, someone who has already been through the many challenges of being an entrepreneur..” -Jodi Levine
Entrepreneurship in Practice: Cases, Challenges and Lessons By IK, MUO PHD is now available on Amazon, since 14/5/21. Click here to view Available for order +2348033026625 | Delivery: Worldwide
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