Nigeria: Ribadu Report and Government's Typical Response


Opinion

When I heard that Malam Nuhu Ribadu, former Chairman of the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC) had been appointed Chairman of the Petroleum Revenue Special Task Force, I recalled an article I read entitled "scandalous scandals", in which the writer asserted that while financial and economic scandals were not uncommon all over the world, Nigerian scandals were indeed different. To buttress his point, he provided examples like the Watergate and Iran Contra scandals in the U.S., the government cocaine scandal in Panama, the Profumo and Fleet Street scandals in Britain, the Imelda Marcos shoe scandal in the Philippines, and the Hansie Kronje cricket scandal in South Africa. Although happening at different times and on different continents, all these scandals had a common denominator. Without exception, one "big man" (i.e. president, senior military official, Senior government minister or captain of industry) paid the price.

Nigerian scandals are different. Shamefully, no one is ever held responsible. Remember the oil windfall scandal? NITEL bus scandal? Police uniform scandal? Ajaokuta Steel scandal? COJA scandal? NYSC scandal? House of Reps vehicles scandal? Successive governments have not considered it important to assuage the sensibilities of an outraged public by offering up one "big man" to bear responsibility and take the fall. In Nigeria the buck stops nowhere! Our scandals are indeed scandalous!

Ribadu contributed to one of our more recent scandalous scandals in his erstwhile position as Chairman of the EFCC. He publicly whetted our appetite with fervent declarations of guilt on dozens of serving governors. He threatened fire and brimstone; they would be arrested and handcuffed immediately they left office. He promised successful conviction and exemplary punitive jail terms which would discourage corruption forever. He told us to be patient and wait as only the immunity clause was holding him back. In anticipation, the public waited, and waited, and waited. Derisively, the potential "convict governors" challenged Ribadu to publish any evidence he had against them. They dismissed him as a one-man show, a brash individual who engaged in verbosity and empty accusations rather obtaining concrete evidence through thorough investigation. In spite of all his bellicosity, at the end of the day what happened? They walked free as plea-bargaining, minor jail terms, slaps on the wrist, and incompetent prosecution became the order of the day. Ribadu's legion of admirers and supporters claim his efforts were sabotaged from the highest quarters. Be that as it may, all said and done it ended up as much ado about nothing. These treasury looters continue to live large and walk the corridors of power. Just another scandalous scandal!

Now, here we go again with the "leaked" report of the Special Task Force. Former Head of Service Mr Steve Oronsaye, who was deputy chairman of the team, claimed the process of the panel work that led to the drafting of the report was faulty. According to him the report contained "...blatant falsehoods, misrepresentations, outright slander and maligning of my reputation". He openly challenged Ribadu to publish any evidence he had rather than engage in empty accusations. Sound familiar?

As if this wasn't bad enough, NLNG joined the fray, in a double-page newspaper advertisement the company's management declared "the report is inaccurate and grossly erroneous", claiming that "...the Task Force neither met with NLNG management nor visited the company in the course of its work". Surprisingly the so called "fact finding" committee made no attempt to seek clarifications on any of the assumed findings before rushing off to compile a report. Another familiar accusation of Ribadu's style: In rounding off their public relations piece, NLNG management added mysteriously that ": This leaves us wondering the purpose of the inquiry".

Not wanting to miss the opportunity to politicize the issue, the Action Congress of Nigeria (ACN) seized upon this last statement to accuse the Federal Government of sabotaging the report. Spokesman Lai Mohammed said the decision to appoint two members to the board of NNPC while the task force was still working was a deliberate booby trap. More especially when the same two members later openly and ferociously disparaged the report. According to ACN, Ribadu was set up because both were meant to play the role of spoilers.

Sceptics believe the whole idea behind the Special Task Force was to divert attention and it was never intended that the findings be made public. In their view the only reason the report is being debated is because it was leaked to Reuters. If not it would probably have gone the way of numerous others which have never seen the light of day. They believe that Government is more concerned with managing the leakage than implementing the recommendations of the report. In their view the only reason the current Minister of Petroleum Resources is still in office after the revelations in the report is because the regime and political elite are complicit in the fraud. They say that asking the Jonathan government to act on the report is asking it to indict itself. Some even suspect that Ribadu knowing full well that the scale and scope of the fraud could only have been perpetrated with collaboration and connivance at the highest levels, arranged for the report to leak. They refer to it as "guerrilla nationalism" and claim it's the only way to circulate information that substantiates the rot in our public administration. Whatever the truth one thing is certain Ribadu needs to start fighting back. Generally speaking he is seen as someone who is on the side of truth who has been consistently frustrated in his fight against corruption. He must not let this happen again. The public is siding with him on this matter. His unbridled patriotism is beyond doubt. He needs to prove that his brash manner is good for more than consistently fudging up issues of financial misappropriation. The last thing he needs to be associated with is another scandalous scandal.

Dr Enahoro is a member of the Editorial Board of Daily Trust.

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