* We ‘ve to elect leaders who can drive it

By Emeka Mamah

Former chairman of the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission, EFCC, Mallam Nuhu Ribadu is canvassing the emergence, through elections, of a leadership that can wage a vigorous and sustainable war against corruption.

He says it is only when Nigeria gets “a holistic leadership that is going to drive it (war against corruption), that is going to insist that that is the way we are going”, that the war can be successfully fought.

Mallam Ribadu spoke on Friday at the Kaduna Community Town Hall meeting with Nigerian youths organised by the Christian Awareness Initiative of Nigeria, CHAIN.

Speaking on “Faith, Political Engagement and the Nigerian Youth”, the former EFCC boss said: “my belief and my hope, if there is going to be a chance for us to really confront it  has to come from the top leadership in  the country; political leadership that is going to believe in it, political leadership that  is going to live in the fight, political leadership that is going to put everything into  honesty.

“Any other way will not work. So how are you going to do about it, it is not  possible unless at the highest level we have individuals who really, but with  honesty  and genuinely make it number one  issue to address, and we have countries doing it.

“For example, we have seen what Paul Kagame did in Ruwanda, but any other thing  under  is not likely going to last.

“My experience  in Government showed that whatever that is done under, and unless the political leadership is with it or is going to lead it, chances are that it is not going to last, even if it lasts it will be reversed.

Nuhu Ribadu

“So the possibility that it will work depends largely on our ability or our chance to get  a  holistic  leadership  that is going to drive it, that is going to insist that,  that is the way we are going and that is how,  hopefully with time we will be able to reverse the whole  unfortunate situation that  we find ourselves.

* Corruption is pervasive

“Today, corruption has taken over, everything is done  in corruption, whether in our education, everywhere even in the private sector, wherever you go, it is corruption that is facing you.

“Whatever that you are entitled to, you are not likely going to get  to get it unless, of course, you pay for it. So my plea is that we have to fight a point through where you are going to catch this and then pass  through it, and hopefully we can do it through election and elect leaders that are going to drive it.

“In  EFCC, whatever money   recovered goes   back to the Government, it goes   back  to the budget, it goes  to where States, Local Governments and Federal Government get their own money. It is going back to the account, there is no other way.

“The gentleman talked about the media.  People are not fools, people know the real thing. When I talked about the size of corruption that money takes over, the money continues to go on.

“They will take money from Government, they will use the money to set up institutions or structures that will support them.  They will continue to use the money to continue to perpetuate themselves in office, they will use the money to rig election to get themselves re-elected, they will continue to use the money in the way that they will continue to remain and be in charge.

“Part of it is to invest in the media. It is understandable, but, of course, it is not impossible to stop it when you have a leadership in this country that will say enough is enough, it will be done.

“If I had time to remain in the EFCC for a while, we had a strategy to address that sector, unfortunately we did not last that long.

* I declared my assets

“On the issue of whether I declared my assets or not, let me explain to you what happened. You are the same person who said that when you fight corruption, it fights back.

“Somehow we attempted to correct and tell them that what they were doing was not the right thing. They went back and took over the Government of Nigeria, and decided to go after us.

“I left the EFCC in 2007, and they took it over themselves.  This is an agency that I set up myself, I ran it for five years. They spent over a year trying to see what they could get, one single thing for them to nail me they could not get. Not a single thing.

“In the desperation to get me, they attempted to kill me, the same people within Nigeria almost kill me on my way from my house to go and pray. They took me to Jos, NIPPS, and almost put me there like a prison while they were investigating me, they followed me, they tried to kill me, they could not succeed because God did not allow it.

“At the end of the day, they could not  get anything and they said I did not declare my assets, not that I have assets, but that is not even the case.

“It is impossible for you to work with EFCC without declaring your assets because it is a condition for you to go to the National Assembly, present it.  They will look at it before you are cleared. No individual goes to public service without declaring his assets.

“The former Minister of Finance, Mrs. Nenadi Usman is here with me; she knows what I am talking about. I still have my assets declaration, and when they went to court, they had it with them. It is not that I have assets, but they said I did not declare it.

“The very first week I left Kuru, Jos I went there and declared it.  Of all things, for God’s sake it is assets  declaration, and someone is saying that he has an issue with that. We should check ourselves, let’s be serious.

“You do not have problem with somebody who is taking your billions, you don’t have problem with those who on a daily basis are denying you the chance to get what is right for you.  It is me as an individual who tried to address these things, sacrificed my 25 years of my life in the Nigerian Police Force. They woke up one day and said they should finish me. We don’t have problem with that.

“They sent me out of Nigeria, I have six children, I have a wife that I did not see for close to two years. And even when they took me to Kuru, I spent  one year, and I graduated, and I did well, but they stood in front of my graduation class and they said they could  not give me my own certificate, and it is the same people who took me to court and said I did not declare my assets.   And somebody is asking me question today that I have issue with them. What can I do for God’s sake?  I am a  human being.

“One person gave me $15 million bribe, and I took it to the CBN, and I used it as evidence to prosecute the person, the same person. And today someone is saying that I have not declared my assets. What is wrong with that?  It is not to say that I have an asset.

“When I got to the EFCC, the first thing I did was that I collected young men like you in the first year, and we did this job together. One of the first things I did was to set up a training and research institute.

“The first money I got in terms of support, was to set up training and research institute. This institute is one of the best in the world, in this part of the world. In terms of tools for you to fight economic and financial crimes, it is one of the best.

“But not only that, we invested on average of 200,000 dollars on each of the five sets of people that we brought into the EFCC to train them internally and externally. Young Nigerians like you.  And they are the people who pursue this thing we designed that we are talking about today.

* EFCC bigger than some older institutions

“And even after two years of trying to destroy the work we did, still EFCC is a household name. EFCC was created in 2003/2004.  There are institutions that are 50 years in this country that nobody is talking about them, and they are young Nigerians who are doing this work today, and they are still there.  For your information, and wait and see, they are the people who are going to change this country.

“I cannot understand why somebody will say that young people are not there, no, they are there. There are young Nigerians, go out and check and see where they are, and what they are doing.

“At the time I left EFCC, I can say that one amazing thing is that if you work and work honestly, and you carry people along with you, and you pay them, and you are transparent, and you are very accountable in the work, they will always be with you.

“Each and every single EFCC boy is with me always. There are a couple of them who left because I was not there. And when the people who took over got in they decided to remove a lot of them out of the EFCC, and moved them back to the Police

“I think we have done fairly well compared to where Nigeria is, EFCC is a household name simply because of those boys that we trained”.