Some Make The News, Others Tell It!
It is an embarrassment to Nigeria and Nigerians that our Attorney General and Minister of Justice who never ceases to remind us that ‘I am the chief legal officer of Nigeria’ could come out publicly yesterday to accuse Nuhu Ribadu of masterminding the recent criminal charges preferred against President Yar’adua’s Principal Private Secretary as well as some ex governors who are known to be very close to the president. How could an enlightened legal mind expect us to believe that one man manipulated the British police to the extent that they went to court, filed criminal charges and issued arrest warrants against these fellows? Someone in the executive has to advise Mr. President to urge his Attorney General to choose his words carefully. Nigeria will exist long after Mr. Aondoakaa, and it is not in our interests that this man makes a mockery of an office that will outlast him. The Attorney General is fond of mouthing the term ‘rule of law’ and he should be told that the rule of law is not something they say, but it is something that is done. In The United Kingdom, there is a long and established regime of the rule of law and it is not possible for an individual to manipulate their sophisticated police which has a whole department that specializes in forensic accounting and are able to trace funds to their origins.
The question may be asked of Mr. Aondoakaa that if he wants Nigerians to swallow the line that Ribadu is responsible for the charges against Mr. President’s confidantes, is he also to blame for the Haliburton scandal, or the Siemens Bribery scandal? The Americans have thrown their own citizens involved in the Haliburton bribery scandal in jail and our Attorney General had nothing more to offer on this issue than that he had released 50 million Naira for the committee to do its work but that they have been slowed down by the retirement of the former IGP, Mr. Okiro. The question is this-was Mr. Okiro’s retirement a surprise? Why should his retirement stop his committee from operating? The rest of the world listens to Mr. Aondoakaa when he say these things and he should be mindful of the ramifications of what he says as ‘the chief legal officer of Nigeria’. Need I remind my readers that the Germans who were likewise involved in the Siems bribery scandal have like the Americans being severely punished while the world awaits Nigeria’s reaction.
Nuhu Ribadu is in my view a true Nigerian hero, who has honour and acts in a very dignified manner. My readers may have observed that when Gani Fawehinmi died, Ribadu at great personal risk to himself returned to Nigeria and personally went to Gani’s home in Ikeja to condole with the family he left behind as well as going to the Ikeja mortuary to pay his last respect to this other great patriot. In the history of Nigeria, as far as my memory serves me, I know of only three men who have returned to the country when they had been accused in absentia of crimes that carried weighty sentences or faced extreme persecution. One of them is Olusegun Obasanjo who was accused of treason by the late Abacha while he was on a visit to Copenhagen, Denmark, and had been warned by then U.S Ambassador to Nigeria, Walter Carrington, by phone not to return to Nigeria otherwise he would be arrested, but return he did. The second was the late Maj. Gen. (Rtd) Tunde Idiagbon who was in far away Saudi Arabia when the government of which he was the second in command was over thrown by General Babangida who promptly arrested his boss Maj. Gen. (Rtd) Buhari. Yet he returned to Nigeria to face certain arrest and persecution. The only other person to have done this to my knowledge is Nuhu Ribadu! Returning to a country where you face persecution and arrest at the hands of those who are unable to disguise the hatred they have for you is an act of courage. A person who is that courageous is not the type of person who brings about spurious allegations.
In fact the Attorney General at his press conference threatened to sue Ribadu for defamation. I will be very glad to see this come to pass. In fact we should pray that he does take Ribadu to court for defamation and let us see how this issue plays out in court!
If ‘the chief legal officer’ of Nigeria wishes to know, he can only get the attention of local news media. His comments are not taken seriously outside the shores of Nigeria. In contrast, Nuhu Ribadu is an internationally known and respected figure who has written an OP/ED piece for the New York Times, has been received by influential world leaders (leaders who are being invited to the G8 that refused to invite some leaders for their meeting) and whose advice is still being sought after by reputable law enforcement bodies. Money is not everything in life, and I would rather my kids turn out like Ribadu than those who persecute him.
Mr. Aondoakaa has to at least make some pretence to leadership. Leadership does not stem from the office you occupy, no! It stems from your character and your personality. Leadership can be summarized as your level of influence. The true test of a leader is this-take away his/her office and then see how much influence the person has without the office. Ribadu was stripped of his office as chairman of the EFCC , yet he continues to maintain and even increase his influence. He has been received by more foreign leaders, being consulted by more world bodies, has addressed more parliaments and has been more talked about now than when he had the office of EFCC chairman. This makes it clear that Ribadu’s leadership qualities were innate and not derived from the office he occupied.
Now reverse this if you would. I want my readers to ask themselves the question-how much influence will Michael Aondoakaa have if he were no longer the Attorney General? If as Attorney General he has by his own admission been unable to secure the cooperation of certain bodies overseas the question may even be asked how much of an influence does he have even while still in office? How influential can Aondoakaa be when two days after he made the ill advised statement that the EFCC has cleared those concerned the EFCC itself came out to deny his claim in a press release it circulated to media outlets stating that it had not cleared those persons. Between the EFCC and The Attorney General who is lying? In the said press release, the EFCC said inter alia that ‘it is inappropriate to input or infer that the three former governors have been exonerated’. The inappropriate statement referred to in the EFCC statement were those of the Attorney General in which he said also inter alia that ‘ at the time the request was made the EFCC had cleared the former governors’. What does it say of a man’s leadership abilities when his subordinates publicly call him to order? What is it they said again about a house divided against itself? Not stopping at that, Mr. Aondoakaa also described Ribadu as a ‘cheap blackmailer who is trying to embarrass the federal government’. I ask the public to judge who between Ribadu and Aondoakaa is actually embarrassing the federal government. As Margaret Thatcher once said, being influential and powerful is just like being a woman, if you have to tell people that you are a woman then obviously you are not a woman because being a woman is an obvious thing. In the same vein, if you have to tell people that you are powerful (by repeatedly stating in public that you ‘are the chief legal officer of Nigeria’) then you really are not powerful.
People of influence naturally command respect, they radiate confidence, they have power over themselves, they also know and know that they know and this compels people to give them the respect they deserve. People who demand respect are only borrowing power and influence that they do not have!
I often tell people that Ribadu reminds me so much of the present Attorney General, but not for the reasons you may think. Like Ribadu, Aondoakaa also is intelligent, has passion and drive, but while these qualities displayed by Ribadu are governed by conscience, those of the Attorney General appear to be governed by ego and the need to constantly remind us of his status as though we will forget. To Michael Aondoakaa, I say this out of love for Nigeria and not to spite you. I honestly believe that your potential to do good and achieve a lot for Nigeria will be helped if you temperately have a sober reflection on your motives.
Those who are close to President Yar’adua should advise him that the buck stops at his table. It is a very dangerous thing in the eyes of our creator to persecute a good man. It is not something to be done lightly. Mr. Aondoakaa is threading a path that even angels fear to thread! Here is a young man who has in the past one year being honoured by several countries and has had the privilege of addressing the U.S Congress, The Sudanese Parliament (The U.S and Sudan being countries who can not agree diplomatically, yet have agreed to honour Ribadu) , and has recently being a guest of the Liberian Government where he helped set up their anti corruption bodies was received by President Ellen Johnson Sirleaf . Yet at home he receives threats and accusations from our ‘chief legal officer’.
I knew in my mind that the powers that be were going to react to Hilary Clinton’s recent comments that ‘the EFCC has fallen off in the last two years’, but being reactionary has never helped anyone. Better to be proactive, call a spade a spade, accept that the chickens are coming home to roost and stop burying heads in the sand like the ostrich. You can fool some people all the time, but you can not fool all the people all the time.
The Attorney General was recently at the Valedictory Session held in honour of the late chief Gani Fawehinmi of blessed memory. He heard all the positive tributes given by friends and foes on the virtues that Gani lived and died for. My advise to the Attorney General is for him to begin with the end in mind. He should visualize that one day we will all be in Gani’s position where we will be no more and people will gather to give speeches about what we were like while we walked this earth. It is what we do, say and create while still alive that will guide what people will say when we die. Do we want to gain the whole world and the friendship of powerful villains by fighting and attacking the just or do we want to speak the truth to power. Being the ‘chief legal officer of Nigeria’ as he regularly reminds us does not consist of making intemperate statements that only serve to portray Nigeria in bad light. It consists of being the ‘chief conscience’ of Nigeria and custodian of her laws.
There are many genuine injustices occuring in Nigeria that should rouse the anger of the Attorney General but this issue is not one of them. Mr. Aondoakaa should be angry at the injustice of the life sentence meted out to the 27 soldiers who were protesting the non payment of their allowances after serving their fatherland meritoriously on a United Nations assignment while nothing is done to those who embezzled their pay which was the root of their grievance. As the ‘chief legal officer’ he could task himself with unravelling the identity of the killers of his predecessor the late Cicero, Bola Ige. He could also direct his energies to seeing that the Justice Uwais Committee’s recommendations on electoral reform are implemented and write his name in gold. If he does this, I am sure he will not have to regularly remind us of his status.
And for the rest of Nigeria, my question to you is this-do we want to be like Nicodemus who knew who Jesus really was and believed in him, but who would only visit him at night because he loved the respect of men more than that of God? As the late Martin Luther said ‘in the end we will remember not the words of our enemies, but the silence of our friends’.
Once again, God bless Nigeria.
PU
