The reshuffle and unnecessary changes inside the
anti-graft institution portray that there could be dangers ahead. If the
Commission is hand controlled by those it supposed to prosecute then how can it
be effective. With the over-night appointment of Mrs. Farida
Waziri, without the senate screening, it shadowed flaw to due process
and Rule of Law. In my own view, I am not against President Umaru yar’Adua’s
regime and would never support people who chide him, but then the appointment
and removal of mallam Nuhu Ribadu is questionable.
The former E.F.C.C. chairman
who became an Assistant Inspector General of Police two years ago, is being
demoted by the police authorities because of his arrest and detention of James
Ibori, the former Governor of Delta State.
Ribadu was appointed as E.F.C.C.
Chairman in March 2003, and his tenure in office was renewed by
Obasanjo in April 2007 and some may ask why the president should renew Ribadu’s
appointment the same month he was to complete his tenure as president of
Nigeria. The whole saga seems to have
commenced with the departure of Obasanjo from the sit of power after a change
in Nigeria presidency. When Yar’Adua was sworn in a president in May 2007 there
were many pending issues with E.F.C.C., and more arrest were still being made,
with Nigerians calling for thorough investigation of pending and new cases of corruption
by the E.F.C.C.
One would have thought that there would be continuity in the
leadership of an Establishment that seemed to be doing well. Ribadu was in
December 2007 sent on a compulsory course at Kuru. After Ribadu
was removed from office, a replacement was announced in the name of Farida
Waziri months later. This pitiable excuse given for Nuhu Ribadu’s removal from
office was seen not as an educational induced removal but simply to get Nuhu
Ribadu out of the way.48