Ibrahim Magu, EFCC boss

By Bola Bolawole

Since the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC) was established by former President Olusegun Obasanjo, no Southerner\Christian has headed it. It has been Northerners\Muslims all the way. Starting with Nuhu Ribadu and going all the way to Farida Waziri, Ibrahim Lamorde, and now Ibrahim Magu, it is like there is a written or unwritten law that only Northerners\Muslims must head the Commission to the total exclusion of Christians and Southerners. This may have been an omission but I got worried when, with the possibility that Magu may be hacked starring everyone in the face, the names being bandied in the media as possible replacements are also all Northerners\Muslims – Zakari Biu, Hamid Ali, Ribadu again, and Amodu Ali. All these are names that are controversial, with one skeleton or another; and they are, therefore, not the angels that some are making them to look like. Can anyone of them stand the scrutiny? I have my doubt. No Northerner\Muslim, in my own reckoning, should get the job at this point in time. It should go to a Christian\Southerner; except we are saying one or all of the following.

One: That the EFCC is the monopoly of the North\Muslims. Why this should be so, we must be told. It is against the grains of the rule of natural justice, fair play, and nation-building to so favour one section of the country while marginalizing another section of it. The president and all the other leaders swore to an oath to defend the Constitution as well as treat all Nigerians fairly and equitably.

Two: That it is only in the North and amongst Muslims that you find men and women of integrity who can catch thieves while in the South and amongst Christians, you cannot find such persons of impeccable character. Carried forward; it may suggest that the thieves (the corrupt) are largely to be found in the South and amongst Christians while the Mr. and Mrs. Clean are to be found in the North and amongst Muslims. In the same way, as may be suggested also, ex-President Goodluck Jonathan, Christian\Southerner, is corrupt while President Muhammadu Buhari, Muslim\Northerner, is Mr. Clean. Both can then be said to be representative of their respective section of the country as well as their faith. Of course, even though this is the tendentious fallacy that some have tried hard to sell, everyone knows that the Buhari administration is as corrupt as Jonathan’s and that by the end of its first term in 2019, its own Augean stable is likely to have swelled more than Jonathan’s, if what we have seen so far is anything to go by. Also, corruption excuses no religion.

Three: I have heard it said before and each time names of EFCC investigators are mentioned in the media it tends to confirm that the North\Muslims maintain a vice-like grip on EFCC; they are said to control about 80\85 percent of its staff. You wonder how that can be true when there is a Federal Character Commission (FCC) that is supposed to ensure that every section of the country gets adequate representation in federally-controlled agencies. But it is possible for the FCC to look away from such infractions when it favours the North\Muslims – and this is the allegation by those who claim to know – because the FCC, like the EFCC, has also been monopolised by Northerners\Muslims. So its mandate, so the allegation further goes, has been surreptitiously changed from maintaining balance amongst the peoples of Nigeria to maintaining and enforcing the domination of the North\Muslims. So, the FCC cries when an agency is perceived to be dominated by Southerners\Christians but keeps mute when it is dominated by Northerners\Muslims. This must be investigated and the result made public in the interest of public peace and national cohesion.

In the beginning, it was the Northerners that fought to have the FCC so that they can have a foothold in federally-controlled agencies perceived to have been dominated by Southerners and the Southerners were the ones shouting “merit” all over the place. Now, however, by some curious logic that this writer has yet to understand, the tide has changed. It is now the Southerners that are demanding federal character because they are the ones being crowded out of federally-controlled agencies. We need no further evidence than look at the Buhari administration to confirm this.

Is it that the North has not only dramatically closed the hitherto yawning gap between it and the South but has even gone ahead to leave the South behind that they are now the ones suitable for all these plum appointments to the chagrin of the South? Of course, you and I know it just cannot be that, since it takes like eternity to close such gaps, especially when the South has not been sleeping but has even been making greater efforts to widen the gap. Probably with investigations, it will be found that the gap may have widened rather than shrunk. So the North’s domination is a function of the perversion of the system to favour the North to the detriment of the South. National unity and cohesion take the bashing from this unsavoury event.

In conclusion, let the next EFCC boss be chosen from the South and let him\her be a Christian. Looking at the contemporary history of Nigeria, those who pretend to love national unity; who shout it from the rooftops; who vow to fight another civil war to keep the country one – they are usually the greatest tribalists and religious fundamentalists who endanger the self-same national unity they parrot. In the history of this country, the leader who has treated others better than his own people is Obasanjo, whether as military Head of State or civilian president; yet, by some curious logic, some say the Yoruba are the most tribalistic Nigerian ever. In the real sense, the most tribalistic leaders have always come from the North; yet, they are the noisiest in shouting national unity. Such hypocrisy!

Wishing all my readers the best of this season!

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