By Kasim Afegbua
President Goodluck Jonathan bared his fangs two days ago by announcing the unceremonious removal of the EFCC chairperson, Mrs. Farida Waziri in a manner that defeats the anti-corruption crusade. Under the universal rules governing anti-corruption, you cannot hire and fire anybody just like that; trying to use corruption to fight corruption, without stating the reason for the removal.

The unspoken rules of engagement should have simply be that the President invites the Chairperson, debrief her of his intention, thank her for her contributions to the anti-corruption crusade and give reasons why you think she will no longer be useful in the assignment of checkmating corruption.

That way, the woman will breathe air of satisfaction that after all, her services and contributions are being appreciated and commended. This Gestapo manner of removing people from office without their knowledge or notice has since become obsolete and uncivilized.

I had raised critical issues to be looked into in any anti-corruption fight in one of my articles on this page two weeks ago. It is either that we are ready to fight the scourge of corruption or we are not. There should be no pretenses about the fight against corruption but since we are in a society that celebrates corruption publicly and privately, we are handicapped to offer the extreme in handling this scourge.

Aside from the act of stealing money and abuse of public offices, ordinary action or inaction could be tantamount to corruption. Nigerians deserve to know the reason why the EFCC Chairperson was removed and in such fiat manner as if we are still operating a military government.

Farida Waziri may not be the best operatives to be so appointed for that office, but she certainly has a pedigree that qualified her for the job ab initio. I am reliably informed that throughout her thirty-five years of service in the Nigeria Police, she was never for once queried.

That is a pass mark in anti-corruption rating. I am also told that she headed very sensitive positions in the Police Force that brought her integrity to bear on her performance, reason why she was considered by the no-nonsense and honest President Umaru Yar’ardua for the EFCC job.

With my training in anti-corruption, Madam Farida Waziri scores higher in terms of approach to combating corruption than her predecessor, Mallam Nuhu Ribadu. While it could be understood that both of them operated under different presidential temperaments, Nuhu Ribadu mixed politics with anti-corruption crusade, thus defeating the very essence of the entire crusade altogether.

With President Jonathan’s sack order, he has simply abused his monopoly powers as espoused by the definition of corruption. For the umpteenth time, corruption is defined universally as; monopoly plus discretion minus accountability. Put in succinct terms, it is the monopoly power of an individual that affects the exercise of his discretionary power which ultimately leads to abuse and absence of accountability. And once there is no accountability, corruption takes full control.

With tenured position as the EFCC Chairmanship, there should be nothing to warrant undue interference from the Chief Executive of the country. Once the head of the anti-corruption agency becomes conscious of the fact that there is no job security and that he could be fired anytime depending on the whims and caprices of the President, his actions would have a tinge of politics that might affect the job for which he or she has been hired to do.

Given human nature and the frailty of our existence, a little space could be translated to mean a football pitch. As the saying goes, give a woman an inch, she will want to park a car therein.

What I am saying in essence is that Madam Farida Waziri does not deserve this kind of summary sack without prior notice when her tenure has not expired. For a sensitive job as that of the Chair of the EFCC, she must have had her own share of threats and intimidations.

It is now obvious that the job is a thankless job and no matter what effort any EFCC Chairman may put into the job, this experience is a reminder that you could be sacked without notice. How then would any one expect the body to work with one mind and soul?

The moment the EFCC chairmanship position becomes politicized as we have at hand, the very essence of the crusade would have been defeated. An anti-corruption agency should not be treated like a company that runs on a profit and loss basis. Even though there is fiscal discipline in all anti-corruption crusades, it is not treated as Limited Liability Company.

The anti-corruption agency under Waziri had advocated for special courts to handle all cases pertaining to trials of alleged persons, but the politics of corruption is as endemic as the corruption itself. Such progressive ideas would not be allowed to fly in a country where even though we are said to be equal before the constitution, some are more superior to the other.

Whoever that is taking over from Farida Waziri should be reminded that the horse whip used on Madam Farida could also be used on him. For many who have long awaited the sack of Madam Farida for no justifiable reason, this is celebration time for them but crying time for anti-corruption crusade. The system suffers certain deprivations when there is no synergy to sustain existing structures by way of continuity.

The new man would now be faced with trying to articulate his own modus operandi and spend time in ensuring that he selects his own team. The existing structures will then be altered or discarded to cater for new interests for those who lobbied for the new man. Ample time will be wasted in the process of trying to jump-start a new system. The crusade suffers set-back and the nation will watch with helpless awe at these dysfunctionalities. New loyalties would be sought and fresh alliances would be built, as much as new dynamics.

Farida Waziri should keep her head high. She was, by my estimation using all the variables of anti-corruption crusade, a huge success story in spite of some overbearing influences that are usually inhibitive of any good intention in Nigeria.

She may not have scored alphas in all department of the crusade, I can say without any fear of contradiction that given the condition under which she worked, she has done well in furthering the anti-corruption crusade. The character of the Jonathan administration does not show any seriousness about anti-corruption crusade.

Beyond all the mouthing about “we will fight corruption”, what is happening in Bayelsa, the home State of the President, is tantamount to political and electoral corruption which is more endemic than financial corruption. The danger in the Bayelsa episode is that a process that is fraught with corruption is freely on parade and will most assuredly produce a representative that will lack the morality to talk about anti-corruption crusade.

The primary election that produced the PDP Candidate is at best a sham and a mockery of the quintessential attributes of a flourishing democracy. That it is happening in the home state of the President and before his very eyes, is a further admittance that this president tolerates bestialities.

Again, the moral question stares President Jonathan in the face. While he was campaigning for election as President, he told the nation that the zoning formula of the PDP as enshrined in its Constitution did not affect the position of the President. The PDP also kowtowed the footprints of the President by declaring that though zoning exists, the President could still contest since the Constitution of the country grants freedom to all Nigerians to so do.

Against the letters and spirit of the PDP Constitution, President Jonathan ran election and the rest as they say is now history. For a man who carries such moral baggage, his declaration that his legs and hands are not in the brewing heat in Bayelsa, is at best a deliberate lie. With all the paraphernalia of office and military apparatchik that took over Bayelsa State in raw show of presidential might, why would the President pretend to be uninvolved?

I won’t be surprised if the reason for the removal of Farida Waziri is presumably based on her refusal to arrest and prosecute the embattled Timipre Sylva to finally nail his political coffin and clear the way for the anointed PDP Candidate Seriake Dickson. Nigerians should watch out for the new helmsman; Timipre Sylva might just be a good starting point in its usual braggadocio way.

Very soon, Nigerians would be greeted with several paid advertorials extolling the “similarities” and “dissimilarities” of the Acting Chairman of the EFCC Ibrahim Lamorde. Efforts would also be made to confirm him as the substantive Chairman of the agency as lobbyists would easily go to town to sell his candidacy.

An anti-corruption agency should expectedly have its own modules that spelt out the criteria for the appointment of its head and other principal positions. Back home here, the position has become political by way of appointment and dismissal, sack or removal. But for the country we are in, Farida Waziri should have challenged her removal in the law court, to at least test the sanctity of the Constitution and other relevant laws. Alas, she would be advised by family members not to waste her time with a simple declaration; “this country is not worth dying for”.

Again, on a final note, President Jonathan should be reminded that there are too many issues presently overheating the system and some of them are avoidable if he could rise above this pedestrian sentiment to the enviable height of a president and commander-in-chief of the armed forces that he is. The on-going political hara-kiri and muscle-flexing in Bayelsa is eternally unnecessary. A president is a President. There is no small president or big president, neither is there big Governor nor small Governor.

All these positions convey authority and respect, in a representative capacity and not ownership. Like a revolving door, power comes, power goes, and the nation remains. The management of power and the pattern of power distribution in a multi-ethnic society like ours tell a lot about the stability of the system. Where are the powerful men of yesteryears? Power has deserted them and they have also deserted power. But life goes on.