Farida’s ‘divine call’
FOUR years ago, Mrs. Farida Waziri was a woman scorned, but today she is ensconced in the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC) as its head. Her fury is long spent and her felicity is in arresting, almost embarrassing, evidence. Farida is having fun. Her disappointment four years ago was stark. She had been led to believe that the EFCC’s top job was hers. Pioneers occupy a rare place of honour. Mrs. Waziri wanted very much to be the one to suckle the EFCC, to give it direction and dignity.But she did not get the job. The government treated her like Tantalus, though she had committed no crime; she was cruelly tantalised, the object of her desire so close, but suddenly yanked beyond her reach. Mrs. Waziri said she did not get the job because she refused to ‘lobby’. The then attorney general and minister of justice, Mr. Kanu Agabi, had been charmed by her curriculum vitae. Mr. Agabi made a pitch on her behalf to the ‘relevant authority,’ as Mrs. Waziri put it with admirable subtlety. But the ‘relevant authority’ was apparently not impressed enough with her academic and professional qualifications to give her the job. This embarrassed Mr. Agabi. His reputation as a gentleman had been called into question. He had given a lady his word that she would be given a job, but had signally failed to deliver on his solemn promise. The lady must now believe that he was not morally superior to the 419 artists he had wanted her to confront. Mr. Agabi tried to repair his reputation. He called Mrs. Waziri and told her what to do to get the job. Mrs. Waziri said last week: ‘And much later, he [Agabi] called me and said why don’t you do this or that?’What did Mr. Agabi want Mrs. Waziri to do to get the job? Mrs. Waziri’s words appear to hint at unseemliness. The ‘relevant authority’ could not have asked for a bribe. But the same ‘relevant authority’ that did not give Mrs. Waziri the EFCC job made her husband an ambassador. Her sojourn abroad dulled the sting of her disappointment. Her husband’s ambassadorial tenure ended and they returned home. Mr. Nuhu Ribadu, chairman of the EFCC, was sent to school, a sophomoric ploy to remove him from office. This raised a ruckus. His deputy was named acting chairman, but this was seen as a mere sop to those angered by Mr. Ribadu’s removal. Even the acting chairman knew he was highly expendable. His services were soon dispensed with.Mrs. Waziri was given the job. It was a job she had coveted; she went to the headquarters of the EFCC even before her nomination had been confirmed by the Senate. Was she trying to make up for what she believed to be lost time? It was an office she believed she should have occupied four years before. Her girlish enthusiasm for the job appeared to some people as desperation. The Senate huffed and puffed, as it often does, but did the presidency’s bidding, as it always does.Mrs. Waziri appears to consider Mr. Ribadu a whippersnapper, indeed an interloper. The Ribadu era is been erased. Mrs. Waziri is a new broom that is removing more than the cobwebs. The EFCC under Mrs. Waziri has not explained why Mr. Ibrahim Magu, former head of the commission’s Economic Governance Unit, is being mugged, as it were.The chairperson of the EFCC said last week when she visited the chairman of the Independent Corrupt Practices and Other Related Offences Commission (ICPC), Justice Emmanuel Ayoola, that God gave her the job. ‘Mine [is] a divine call to service’, she said.This smacks of a Messiah complex. Former president Olusegun Obasanjo claimed God told him to run for a second term and soon began to believe he was the real God. His conceit almost destroyed the nation. He imposed a president that appears lost in a mental mist. He has no solution to even the simplest problem.Why does God give some people power to do evil? Voltaire questioned the fairness, even wisdom, of God after an earthquake killed more than 60,000 people in Lisbon, Portugal, on November 1, 1755. He wrote in his long ‘Poem on the Lisbon Disaster’: ...Behold these shreds and cinders of your raceThis child and mother heaped in common wreck...What crime, what sin, had those young hearts conceivedThat lie, bleeding and torn, on mother’s breast?Did fallen Lisbon deeper drink of viceThan London, Paris, or sunlit Madrid?People have killed in God’s name since the beginning of time. Jihadists and crusaders massacred thousands of people. There have been many deadly religious riots in Nigeria. Some people butchered their innocent neighbours because they believed their febrile religious sensibilities had been bruised. But Mrs. Waziri has not done evil, though she has given the impression that only Nigerians practise deception. She told the French ambassador that the EFCC would ensure that no French person was conned by Nigerian crooks. She said the EFCC would do this by getting legislative approval to spy on Nigerian cybercafe users. But Protos, in Andre Gide’s The Vatican Cellars (Les Caves du Vatican) is a con man. France has real-life Protoses.Mrs Waziri has put Chief Olabode George, a former chairman of the Nigerian Ports Authority, on trial for corruption. Mr. Ribadu had stated that Chief George was as clean as a new ship, that he did not carry cargoes of corruption. I wrote in the column published on March 2, 2006: ‘Mr. Ribadu was directed by the president to carry out further investigations. Mr. Ribadu, normally as noisy as a magpie, lost his voice and did not say anything about his findings until journalists started to ask him why Chief George, reportedly found culpable, was not facing trial.‘At the mention of Chief George’s name, Mr. Ribadu takes refuge in irritability. It has now suddenly occurred to him that Chief George served as a part-time chairman of the NPA.’ Where did Mrs. Waziri get the evidence she used in filing charges against Chief George? Did she find it in the report Mr. Ribadu wrote after investigating the contracts awarded during Chief George’s time as chairman of NPA?It is good Mrs. Waziri is looking at cases that were apparently not allowed to reach the court when Chief Obasanjo was in power. But will it need a divine directive to reopen the case of alleged corruption involving the wife of the vice-president?
FOUR years ago, Mrs. Farida Waziri was a woman scorned, but today she is ensconced in the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC) as its head. Her fury is long spent and her felicity is in arresting, almost embarrassing, evidence. Farida is having fun. Her disappointment four years ago was stark. She had been led to believe that the EFCC’s top job was hers. Pioneers occupy a rare place of honour. Mrs. Waziri wanted very much to be the one to suckle the EFCC, to give it direction and dignity.But she did not get the job. The government treated her like Tantalus, though she had committed no crime; she was cruelly tantalised, the object of her desire so close, but suddenly yanked beyond her reach. Mrs. Waziri said she did not get the job because she refused to ‘lobby’. The then attorney general and minister of justice, Mr. Kanu Agabi, had been charmed by her curriculum vitae. Mr. Agabi made a pitch on her behalf to the ‘relevant authority,’ as Mrs. Waziri put it with admirable subtlety. But the ‘relevant authority’ was apparently not impressed enough with her academic and professional qualifications to give her the job. This embarrassed Mr. Agabi. His reputation as a gentleman had been called into question. He had given a lady his word that she would be given a job, but had signally failed to deliver on his solemn promise. The lady must now believe that he was not morally superior to the 419 artists he had wanted her to confront. Mr. Agabi tried to repair his reputation. He called Mrs. Waziri and told her what to do to get the job. Mrs. Waziri said last week: ‘And much later, he [Agabi] called me and said why don’t you do this or that?’What did Mr. Agabi want Mrs. Waziri to do to get the job? Mrs. Waziri’s words appear to hint at unseemliness. The ‘relevant authority’ could not have asked for a bribe. But the same ‘relevant authority’ that did not give Mrs. Waziri the EFCC job made her husband an ambassador. Her sojourn abroad dulled the sting of her disappointment. Her husband’s ambassadorial tenure ended and they returned home. Mr. Nuhu Ribadu, chairman of the EFCC, was sent to school, a sophomoric ploy to remove him from office. This raised a ruckus. His deputy was named acting chairman, but this was seen as a mere sop to those angered by Mr. Ribadu’s removal. Even the acting chairman knew he was highly expendable. His services were soon dispensed with.Mrs. Waziri was given the job. It was a job she had coveted; she went to the headquarters of the EFCC even before her nomination had been confirmed by the Senate. Was she trying to make up for what she believed to be lost time? It was an office she believed she should have occupied four years before. Her girlish enthusiasm for the job appeared to some people as desperation. The Senate huffed and puffed, as it often does, but did the presidency’s bidding, as it always does.Mrs. Waziri appears to consider Mr. Ribadu a whippersnapper, indeed an interloper. The Ribadu era is been erased. Mrs. Waziri is a new broom that is removing more than the cobwebs. The EFCC under Mrs. Waziri has not explained why Mr. Ibrahim Magu, former head of the commission’s Economic Governance Unit, is being mugged, as it were.The chairperson of the EFCC said last week when she visited the chairman of the Independent Corrupt Practices and Other Related Offences Commission (ICPC), Justice Emmanuel Ayoola, that God gave her the job. ‘Mine [is] a divine call to service’, she said.This smacks of a Messiah complex. Former president Olusegun Obasanjo claimed God told him to run for a second term and soon began to believe he was the real God. His conceit almost destroyed the nation. He imposed a president that appears lost in a mental mist. He has no solution to even the simplest problem.Why does God give some people power to do evil? Voltaire questioned the fairness, even wisdom, of God after an earthquake killed more than 60,000 people in Lisbon, Portugal, on November 1, 1755. He wrote in his long ‘Poem on the Lisbon Disaster’: ...Behold these shreds and cinders of your raceThis child and mother heaped in common wreck...What crime, what sin, had those young hearts conceivedThat lie, bleeding and torn, on mother’s breast?Did fallen Lisbon deeper drink of viceThan London, Paris, or sunlit Madrid?People have killed in God’s name since the beginning of time. Jihadists and crusaders massacred thousands of people. There have been many deadly religious riots in Nigeria. Some people butchered their innocent neighbours because they believed their febrile religious sensibilities had been bruised. But Mrs. Waziri has not done evil, though she has given the impression that only Nigerians practise deception. She told the French ambassador that the EFCC would ensure that no French person was conned by Nigerian crooks. She said the EFCC would do this by getting legislative approval to spy on Nigerian cybercafe users. But Protos, in Andre Gide’s The Vatican Cellars (Les Caves du Vatican) is a con man. France has real-life Protoses.Mrs Waziri has put Chief Olabode George, a former chairman of the Nigerian Ports Authority, on trial for corruption. Mr. Ribadu had stated that Chief George was as clean as a new ship, that he did not carry cargoes of corruption. I wrote in the column published on March 2, 2006: ‘Mr. Ribadu was directed by the president to carry out further investigations. Mr. Ribadu, normally as noisy as a magpie, lost his voice and did not say anything about his findings until journalists started to ask him why Chief George, reportedly found culpable, was not facing trial.‘At the mention of Chief George’s name, Mr. Ribadu takes refuge in irritability. It has now suddenly occurred to him that Chief George served as a part-time chairman of the NPA.’ Where did Mrs. Waziri get the evidence she used in filing charges against Chief George? Did she find it in the report Mr. Ribadu wrote after investigating the contracts awarded during Chief George’s time as chairman of NPA?It is good Mrs. Waziri is looking at cases that were apparently not allowed to reach the court when Chief Obasanjo was in power. But will it need a divine directive to reopen the case of alleged corruption involving the wife of the vice-president?
No comments:
Post a Comment