Since the establishment of the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC) by the Olusegun Obasanjo administration in 2003, the commission has had four chairmen: Nuhu Ribadu, the pioneer chair; Farida Waziri (June 6, 2008-Nov. 23, 2011); Ibrahim Lamorde (Nov. 23, 2011-Nov. 9, 2015) and Ibrahim Magu (Nov. 9, 2015- July 10, 2020).
Magu has however been suspended by President Muhammadu Buhari, pending completion of an investigation into his activities as the commission’s chair by a presidential panel set up for that purpose. The commission’s head of operations, Mohamed Umar, is to take charge in an acting capacity.
Instructively, none of the EFCC bosses had what could be called a hitch-free tenure. Ribadu was accused of haunting only people opposed to the Obasanjo administration; ran into stormy waters and was removed on June 6, 2008, only to be demoted down two ranks in the police force exactly two months later.
Waziri was dismissed by President Goodluck Jonathan on Nov. 23, 2011, while Lamorde was sacked by President Buhari on Nov. 9, 2015.
The agency’s primary responsibility is to investigate financial crimes, including advance fee fraud (419 fraud) and money laundering.
The musical chairs scenarios in the commission’s top echelon should be understood not only in the context of a country where people eat corruption as if it is food, but also in the context of the usual fight back by the corrupt in every society where attempts are being made to combat their crime.
The fact is; corruption is sweet, even if cancerously so. This reminds me of the pun we used to make of the name of the commission’s pioneer chairman, Ribadu, which some people changed to Riba dun literally meaning ‘bribery is sweet’ in the Yoruba language.
And when efforts are being made to take something that is sweet from those eating it, they won’t let go without a fight.
The only good EFCC boss would, therefore, be the one that would close his or her eyes to corrupt practices and hobnob with those who live by the scourge.
Although successive EFCC chairmen have somehow had it rough, Magu’s case has been spectacularly so in that he is the only one whose appointment was never confirmed by the senate.
Indeed, twice did President Buhari send his name for confirmation to the Eighth Senate, and twice did the Bukola Saraki-led Senate refuse to confirm his appointment, ostensibly based on security reports.
In fairness to President Buhari, Magu has remained his beloved appointee in whom he appears well pleased. That is why he has kept him on the job despite the senate’s refusal to confirm his appointment and despite the powerful forces opposed to his continued stay in office.
So, what happened now? Did Magu’s traducers succeed in presenting more convincing evidence to sway the president to their side? I don’t think so.
At least there is nothing to so suggest in the public domain. It is the same so-called security report that the Department of State Services (DSS) has kept on regurgitating since 2016.
That Magu is living in an N40m mansion paid for by one Umar Mohammed, a retired air commodore; that the apartment was furnished with another N43m; that Magu was strongly reprimanded by the Police Service Commission, having been found guilty of official infractions; that the EFCC chairman was fond of embarking on official trips in a private jet owned by the same Mohammed.
That he is fond of traveling first class despite presidential directive forbidding such; that Magu is re-looting the loot realized from corrupt persons, etc.
Given Magu’s response to the query issued by the Minister of Justice and Attorney-General of the Federation in December 2016, all of these would seem like a storm in a teacup if there isn’t more to it than meets the eye.
It seems Magu’s enemies moved against him again to deny him of benefitting from the existing rapprochement between the executive and the legislature, probably sensing that the president may want to represent his name again for confirmation.
The situation on the ground is that today, Magu, the hunter, is now hunted and has been undergoing interrogation since last week Monday.
Worse still, his arrest and detention have been designed to humiliate him. Those who orchestrated it want to sufficiently embarrass him such that he would find no attraction to return to office even if, peradventure, the panel finds nothing incriminating against him.
On the face value, the Presidency’s position on the investigation might appear unassailable: no one is above the law. Magu himself must have realized this.
But the arrest and detention reek of vendetta and bad faith. This, really, is my worry and I guess the worry of millions of Nigerians who are watching the developments with keen interest.
When a 22-count charge is slammed against someone, including insubordination, it would be difficult for that person to escape, especially in a place like the EFCC which has the Federal Ministry of Justice headed by the Minister of Justice and Attorney-General of the Federation as its supervising ministry.
The implication is that the EFCC can only go as far as the supervising ministry wants it to go. There have been instances even before Magu when both the ministry and the commission were having running battles over some cases where the attorney-general would want to file nolle prosequi whereas the commission felt otherwise.
In our kind of country where everyone in power wants to rub it in because of the absence of structures, a situation where people running a crucial agency like the EFCC have diametrically opposed interests cannot augur well for the country.
The same attorney-general Abubakar Malami who is at the forefront of the ‘Magu must go’ unfolding drama has not written to the president to query the army authorities who are refusing to release their men involved in the killing of three police officers and subsequently aided the escape of suspected notorious kidnapper, Bala Hamisu, alias Wadume.
President Buhari must be sufficiently experienced to know that not all supervisors are more patriotic than their subordinates, that is when the bosses are even patriotic at all.
Magu’s achievements in the last five years are enough to speak for him. He deserves applause for getting 2,240 convictions, including those of highly exposed untouchables.
“We have recovered assets in excess of N980 billion and quite a large array of non-monetary assets like properties, estates, private jets, oil vessels, filling stations, schools; hotels; trucks and other automobiles; pieces of jewelry; plazas, shopping malls, electronics, among others,” he told newsmen just last month.
This is no mean feat given the snail’s pace at which justice travels in our clime and the delay tactics used by many of the big suspects to evade conviction.
His local record has commended him for appointment as chairman of the Regional Conference of Anti-Corruption Agencies in Commonwealth Africa. Nigeria’s stature has also improved internationally in the area of anti-corruption in Magu’s time.
But nothing here suggests that Magu should not be investigated if there is the basis for that. What I am saying is that President Buhari has to be sure of the motive/s of those championing his unceremonious exit.
At the end of the day, it is his anti-corruption war that would suffer should Magu be humiliated out of office unjustly.
This is because Magu’s successors would not be committed to the job again. The corrupt elements in the country only have one word of advice to discourage them: remember Magu.
What I am saying is that President Buhari must know that it is not only his government’s integrity that is at stake with what is happening to Magu right now.
Nigeria’s commitment to the fight against corruption is also at stake. Even the People’s Democratic Party (PDP) people are calling for Magu’s head.
They will celebrate if he is eventually removed. We all know why. So, the president must be guided by the fact too that EFCC was founded partly in response to pressures that Nigeria was one of 23 non-cooperative countries in the international community’s efforts to fight money laundering.
Magu’s efforts have led to the conviction of several very important personalities, including former governors and generals. These hitherto untouchables will be more than glad to see him disgraced out of office. To them, he is a bad market.
This is much more so with the next General Elections coming up in 2023. With many governors now finding the National Assembly as the next port of call after serving as chief executives of their respective states, they cannot be aloof about who heads a crucial commission like the EFCC. Magu is a threat to their ambition.
Since they would have lost their immunity which makes many of them act like emperors, they would be better off with a pliant EFCC boss.
Otherwise, they can now be called to question over the corpses they buried with the legs outside, which no one could ask them to account for in their days in government and in power.
The good news in this matter is that Justice Ayo Salami, former President of the Court of Appeal, (himself a victim of high wire politics) is chairman of the panel probing Magu.
He can, therefore, be hopeful of a fair trial. With a respected judge like him at the head of the panel to investigate Magu, I guess the EFCC boss is only down, but not out.
Above all, however, President Buhari should not play Pontius Pilate in this matter. Whatever happens to Magu will go a long way in defining how people perceive the EFCC chair’s job. And it would be a matter for regret if Magu’s successors see the job as a thankless job.
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