Presidential Pardon: Is EFCC Really A ‘Toothless Bulldog’?
By Muhammad Bashir, Abuja
AREWA AGENDA – Let me hark-back to the year 1894, when Gorge Jackson addressed some young people in the book he published and gave it a title, “First Thing First”. The same name/title was also given to another book published by Stephen R. Covey, the author of 7 Habits of Highly Effective People.
Alright, using Gorge Jackson’s title, let me open this write-up by reminding us about how Nigerians expressed both happiness and optimism, after President Muhammadu Buhari appointed Abdul-Rasheed Bawa as the new Chairman of the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC) on Tuesday, 16th February 2021.
At that time, people vehemently flaunted their happiness that “President Buhari has made an extraordinary choice for appointing Mr Bawa, a 40 year old lad…” – and were so much optimistic that Bawa will work tirelessly to salvage the agency and bring back the glory it’s lost over the years – since the leadership of Nuhu Ribadu and Farida Waziri.
I remember with nostalgia, how we were all rejoicing with Bawa, being one of the EFCC’s well-trained investigators that garnered vast experience in terms of investigating and prosecuting suspect of advance financial fraud cases, official corruption, bank fraud, money laundering – as well as many other related economic crimes. Beside those previous dos heads, anti-graft agency has never had a chairman whose appointment thrilled citizens and unite them ‘all at once’ to support the fight against corruption than Abdul-Rasheed Bawa.
Unfortunately, there were multiple murmurings and complaints from many sides of the country due to some reasons best known to themselves, as to why would presidency ask senate to approve the appointment of Bawa as EFCC Chairman, when he was ‘presumedly’ said to be related to Abubakar Malami, the Honourable Minister of Justice and stuff. Howbeit, their screams and malevolence almost went unnoticed and or deliberately ignored, because what presidency considered was the country first – and not what country men will say.
And as envisaged, Bawa made a lot of differences and changes in the institution – in fact, he was able to introduce many fresh ideas of instituting legal proceedings against foes of Nigeria’s economy within and outside the boarder lines.
Afterwards and by-and-by, Bawa was celebrated ‘again’ by many people – especially when he randomly launched aggressive operations against some ‘old rats’ in the country; uncompromisingly sued them to court and got them jailed. I have personally heard the reactions of many people who expressed fears that Bawa could be harmed or bullied by these same polished persons he’s being picking. These fears got risen when he was reported to have gone ‘softly’ indisposed at an event he’s supposed to deliver a speech. He unanimously became a HERO that time, I remember.
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TOPIC OF TODAY: PRESIDENTIAL PARDON
I am sure it is still not late to digest on this. This recent presidential pardon that was served to the former governors of Plateau, Joshua Dariye and Jolly Nyame of Taraba states, has sowed many the seeds of reactions from Nigerians – tagging the development as “a huge support to corrupt leaders by President Muhammadu Buhari and that EFCC must be scraped…” or if I may quote from Femi Falana’s statement, he says “government should create an avenue, through which every inmate in the Nigerian prison will be discharged”.
Obviously, Barrister Falana’s take was what caused and ignited the flow of reactions against this measure, and gave room for more stiffer criticisms from different individuals – who think that Dariye and Jolly’s pardon was President Buhari’s navel-gazing or selfishness and lack of proper support for eradicating corruption from Nigeria. Surprisingly, these are the same persons who commended the efforts of both President Buhari and Mr Bawa in the fight against corruption earlier. They’ve premeditatedly and purposely ignored federal government’s reasons for granting this presidential pardon to them – even when they have made it clear that Jolly and Joshua have all been terminally sick.
To me, releasing these old-aged persons should not be a scale or a gauge for measuring the integrity of Mr Bawa’s EFCC or President Buhari’s administration. However, what Nigerians should focus on [instead of this matter] is how the anti-graft agency has tremendously achieved multiple results and scored a lot of persuading points in its work. We should all focus on EFCC’s efforts of inviting and prosecuting of suspects irrespective of their status or position. To me, they are perfectly doing their job!
Majority of these people who criticized or raised eyebrows against the release of these people; agitating for putting the activities of EFCC on halt (completely), have all agreed that Bawa is a man of high reputation and his doggedness is unchallenged; they have not forgotten the rigorous training he was given by FBI, KPMG and many other institutions in the UK, United States and Nigeria.
It’s on record that Bawa has successfully led several number of key corruption and financial crimes investigations including the infamous case of former Petroleum Minister, Mrs Diezani Allison-Madueke, the case of former Niger State governor, Muazu Babangida Aliyu and that of the controversial crude oil swap – and we were all glad to hear that EFCC has gone to this extra lengths.
I am sure we will neither cripple our hope and expectations on EFCC, or make us easily forget about the contributions it gives in terms of protecting Nigeria from plunging into a deadly narrowed hole, that no muscle can be strong enough to lift her out – and they are not a “toothless bulldogs”.
Muhammad Bashir, an indigene of Kano state, is a Multimedia Professional and a writer. He wrote from Abuja and can be reached via email address: [email protected]
