Obasanjo: Post-Ribadu EFCC, a Toothless Bulldog

 

 

Former President Olusegun Obasanjo last Saturday described the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission as “toothless bulldog” after the exit of its pioneer chairman, Mallam Nujhu Ribadu. 

Obasanjo noted that successive leadership of the commission after Ribadu failed to lead the fight against economic and financial crimes with the same endearingly fervent drive that had made the organisation popular before Nigerians at its inception. Obasanjo made the assertion in Abeokuta during a ceremony at the Obasanjo Presidential Library to mark his 79th birthday.

EFCC was established in 2003 by the administration of Obasanjo as a law enforcement agency to investigate and prosecute financial crimes, such as advance fee fraud (419 fraud) and money laundering, with Mallam Nuhu Ribadu as its first chairman. The commission’s establishment was, partly, in deference to the Financial Action Task Force on Money Laundering (FATF), which named Nigeria as one of 23 non-cooperative countries in the international effort to fight money laundering.

But speaking yesterday during his birthday celebration, Obasanjo lamented EFCC’s relapse to inertia after Ribadu’s exit. He, however, praised Ribadu’s era at the helm of the organisation as representing the great moments in the commission’s history.
The former president stated, “Honestly, when Nuhu was handling EFCC, he handled it in such a way that people coined the saying that the beginning of wisdom is the fear of Nuhu Ribadu and, then, the thing you will ask is, how did we go down? How did we lose that?

“Nuhu Ribadu is still here, he’s still alive, the institution we started together is still there, but what made the institution to become a toothless bulldog? What? And that is the matter we have to keep looking at so that we don’t take two steps forward, one step aside and three steps back.”

Ribadu was chairman of EFCC from 2003 to 2007, when he was removed by Obasanijo’s successor, Alhaji Umaru Yar’Adua. Mrs. Farida Waziri took over from Ribadu and led the commission between May 2008 and November 2011. Ibrahim Lamorde led EFCC from November 2011 to November 2015, when he handed over to the incumbent chairman, Ibrahim Magu.

Magu’s tenure has seen some effort to restore the effectiveness of EFCC.
Meanwhile, Obasanjo has advocated the use of technology in the fight against terrorism. He said this during his birthday ceremonies. Obasanjo said if the terrorists could deploy technology in the pursuit of their nefarious mission, it was imperative to also adopt technology to counter them.

According to the former president, “The world is interested in what can be done to stem the tide and I think what we did yesterday, we made our own contribution in a way that we believe will serve our country, serve our sub-region, West Africa, our region of Africa, and, indeed, the world we live in.

“I summarised that the solution lies in six areas: at home, in the community, in the church/mosque, in the schools/colleges, in the local, state and federal governments, and in the international community. At each of these, we do things that we should not do and we leave undone what we should do.