By Musikilu Mojeed
The former Chairman of the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission, [EFCC] Nuhu Ribadu, has requested the American government to “double its commitment to the democratic future of Nigeria” and pressure the Nigerian government to rev up the war against corruption.
“I have always maintained that corruption is perhaps the greatest reason for the failure of development and failure of democracy in our region, Mr. Ribadu said at a speech he gave at the Council on Foreign Relations in New York.
“For this reason, I ask today that the West and the United States in particular double its commitment to the democratic future of Nigeria.” Mr. Ribadu, a respected anti-corruption fighter, was removed from his post in 2007 after the EFCC he headed arrested and locked up James Ibori, a former state governor, believed to have significantly bankrolled President Musa Yar’Adua’s election.
Robust actions
Now on exile, following alleged attempts on his life, Mr. Ribadu is a visiting fellow at the Center for Global Development, Washington DC and Senior Fellow at St. Anthony’s College at Oxford University, United Kingdom.
Since he relocated abroad, the former EFCC chairman has continued to advocate for a more transparent and effective handling of Nigeria’s affairs and those of other African countries.
At the Council For Foreign Relation’s symposium, attended by U.S. policymakers, academics, experts and politicians, Mr. Ribadu, speaking on, “Corruption and Africa: Beyond the bleak projections for a region and its challenges”, asked the United States to pressure his country’s leaders to urgently reform the electoral system in the run up to the 2011 general election.
“Our nation may suffer the frustrating challenges of a prolonged childhood but the nobility of our people’s dreams outpace the putrid vision of their leaders,” he said.
“There are urgent goals and priorities that can help push our nation forward. One is an urgent electoral reform which must be a condition for the 2011 elections. The second priority will be to put the anti-corruption programme back on the rail. Such a programme will assume a one-stop agency that comes complete with a financial intelligence unit, an attitude of zero tolerance for inner agency corruption, an attorney general who is not a friend to the most criminal elements in the land, and a judiciary that has defined itself in terms of expeditious resolution of cases and incorruptibility.”
He said if the United States was indeed interested in Nigeria’s progress, it must take “robust action against the stolen money that finds its way into your jurisdictions; against the companies that believe there is only one way to do business in Africa; support for training for the best in security forces, civil service, judiciary and media.
“And when it comes to something like elections, a focus now, well ahead of time, of the issues: if we wait for polling day, it may be too late.”
Arguing that corruption is responsible for a larger chunk of Nigeria’s woes, Mr. Ribadu said the country could still experience a rapid turnaround if it gets the right kind of support from abroad.
He lamented that a small clique of corrupt elite who have continued to bleed the country of its meagre resources had hijacked his country, throwing it into abject poverty.
“The score sheet of this very tenacious system is that it delivers for those it serves but leaves the overwhelming majority with next to nothing.”
Mr. Ribadu said because the funds that should have been used to fix the healthcare system had been stolen, President Umaru Yar’Adua is now holed up in Saudi Arabia undergoing medical treatment.
“A visit to any one of our once proud but now sadly dilapidated universities will show the picture is the same in education, as in indeed is the case in the security sector, the environment, the care for the climate, and other development sectors,” he said.
No limits
“We have now settled to the conclusion that when corruption takes over, only your imagination limits how fundamental the consequences can be. Our people are no longer properly educated or cared for.
“The police cannot protect citizens from criminals, although there are those who swear that they are the criminals. If judges can be bought, there is no justice.
“Because contracts to repair and rebuild the power sector have been abused for a generation”, Mr.
Ribadu continued, “We now produce barely as much electricity as we did at independence 50 years ago this October.” He said “for those who import diesel to feed the generators accessible to the fortunate few, it has been a multibillion dollar bonanza; for the contractors who promise much but deliver little, it has also provided enormous fortunes.
“But without power we have no industry. With no industry we have no real jobs, no possibility to compete even with our neighbours and the relentless erosion of our living standards,” the former EFCC chairman concluded.
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