by Isi Esene

The presidency has responded to the speech made by the former chairman of the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC), Mallam Nuhu Ribadu, at a lecture in Kaduna on Saturday describing Nigeria as a “sinking ship” under the administration of President Goodluck Jonathan.

In the release which was signed by Dr. Reuben Abati, the Special Adviser to the President of Media and Publicity, the presidency noted that “it is very unfortunate indeed that the once highly respected former EFCC Chairman has now taken to political prostitution and developed a penchant for irresponsible and reckless utterances aimed at improving the electoral fortunes of his new friends.”

Read the full text of the statement below:

Presidency totally rejects the false, hypocritical and self-serving claim by Mallam Nuhu Ribadu at a lecture in Kaduna on Saturday that Nigeria under President Goodluck Jonathan is a “sinking ship” in which the yearnings of the masses are being neglected by a tyrannical leadership.

We find it very sad and utterly deplorable that Nuhu Ribadu has resorted to shameless wolf-crying, the peddling of arrant falsehood and the denigration of the elected government of his fatherland in furtherance of his selfish quest for continued national political relevance after his wholesale
rejection by Nigerian voters in 2011.

It is very unfortunate indeed that the once highly respected former EFCC Chairman has now taken to political prostitution and developed a penchant for irresponsible and reckless utterances aimed at improving the electoral fortunes of his new friends and “leader”, who he once famously denounced as
a crook who is “not fit to hold public office”.

There can be no doubt that nothing else but blind ambition for an office for which he is clearly unfit is driving Ribadu to infer that an Administration led by a President who welcomed him back to the country
after his self-imposed exile, restored his rank in the Nigeria Police to save him from the shame of demotion and converted his dismissal from service to retirement has now become tyrannical and anti-people. We take special note of his ingratitude.

If Nuhu Ribadu wants to talk of tyranny then he should talk of the days when he orchestrated the impeachment of governors with an illegitimate quorum of legislators who had been threatened by the EFCC under his watch. It beats the imagination that Nuhu Ribadu, a[b] man who once presided over an EFCC which in 2007 compiled a list of disqualified politicians aspiring for office without a court order or legal backing[/b] now has the guts to accuse the man under whom Nigeria has had the most credible elections in this Fourth Republic of being the leader of a “sinking ship”. Can there be a greater tyranny than the tyranny of removing governors via undemocratic means and barring legally entitled persons from contesting elections?

Nothing else but misguided ambition could have driven Ribadu to urge Nigerian youth to rise up and save the country from an Administration which he willingly served recently, but which he now duplicitously and insincerely claims is “imposing private interests on the majority”.

It is certainly the height of hypocrisy for Ribadu who built his entire reputation as an anti-corruption crusader by completely disregarding the rule of law and recklessly trampling on the rights of perceived enemies of the government of the day, to now accuse an administration that has consistently upheld the rule of law and respect for fundamental human rights of being tyrannical.

It is only a shameless man that will turn around and accept to be the political lackey of a man he once openly accused of corruption at various times between 2004 and 2007. Now that he has been used and abused by the undemocratic overlords that reign over the ACN and fearing that he may soon be dumped now that that vehicle is about to be subsumed into the so called All Progressives Congress, Ribadu is desperately seeking fresh relevance.

Ribadu’s descent into a moral abyss since leaving the exalted office of EFCC Chairman, his equally ethically-challenged new friends and his willingness to vituperate against any person or institution he perceives as a challenge to the fulfillment of his unattainable ambitions, have clearly exposed him for what he truly is – a thoroughly unprincipled attention-seeker whose entire career in the public service was built on bootlicking and doing the bidding of the powers of the day without a care for legality which should have been his primary concern as an officer of the law.

President Jonathan and his Administration will not be distracted from the diligent implementation of the agenda for national transformation by the falsehoods and vituperations of Ribadu and his new friends.

Far from being tyrannical as Ribadu falsely alleged in Kaduna, President Jonathan will, as he has consistently done since assuming office, continue to strengthen institutions of democratic governance in Nigeria, uphold the fundamental human rights of all Nigerians including the youth, and protect their right to elect leaders in free, fair and credible elections.

Ribadu’s descent into a moral abyss since leaving the exalted office of EFCC Chairman

eGuerrilla:

We are talking about the same Ribadu hired to chair the Petroleum Revenu Task Force only last year?

Let's see how far Abati gets in this race to the bottom...

ballabriggs: This is what happens when you fail to do the wrong thing. If only Ribadu had locked up that his Hippopotamus looking wife when he caught her with $100,000 at MMA, by now Abati would have still been at Guardian looking for who to blackmail for 'egunje' in the name of editorial.

I blame Nuhu. You caught her, red handed, but you failed to act. Now the bush meat is back for the hunter. It is sad, it is very sad indeed.

take dat: What were you expecting from an intellectual fraudster and sychophant? A duplicitous turncoat calling another a bootlicker! Abati in his characteristic manner, writing epistles lacking in good manners and refinement. Why didn't he state in it that Ribadu's EFCC arrested a certain Patience Johnathan for money laundering to the tune of $12.5million but was subsequently swept under the carpet so that Abati's boss(GEJ) could be made VP? Or that GEJ was indicted by the Ribadu Joint task force on corruption for false asset declaration in 2006! Smh!

Removing Ribadu

Post 30 December 2007
Last Updated on 23 April 2008
By Reuben Abati

...Corruption is a way of life for the ruling Peoples Democratic Party, (PDP), and its associates, including their children and other family members, in and out of office. Although Ribadu is an appointee of the PDP, he was beginning to behave like a man who could turn against his own sponsors. By May 29, Ribadu had become larger than life, larger than the political party that put him in power. In his statements and in the protestations of his supporters, he was beginning to sound like a special creation that is superior to government. Such expression of independence, no matter how patriotic the intent may be, is unacceptable to the usual cabal that is in power in African states. African politicians like to send only one message: "I am in charge!"...

... The EFCC under Ribadu may have had its excesses, and these have been well noted (the charge of selectivity, the politicization of the work of the Commission, Ribadu's windbaggery, the use of the Commission by Obasanjo to target perceived enemies etc). But the same EFCC helped to raise the level of international confidence in Nigeria. Its work in the area of financial crimes helped to effectively criminalize the theft of state funds by public officials.

It further drove financial scammers, the notorious 419 underground. The Financial Action Task Force which had blacklisted Nigeria as at 1999 found cause to lift its embargo on Nigeria as a destination for investment capital. We also got better ratings on the Transparency International Index. Stolen wealth began to flow back into the Nigerian economy, it accounts largely for the boom in the Nigerian stock market in the past three years.

In the long run, it is the Yar'Adua administration that is in the dock. Ribadu is out, so what next? No man is indispensable, and nobody has said that Ribadu's name is written into the EFCC Act as Chairman for life, but how strong is the EFCC as an institution? Can it continue to function after the exit of its high profile Chairman? Is the EFCC bigger than one man or is it a one-man show?

Sincere 9gerian: Notwithstanding my respect for Ribadu, its FIRE-FOR-FIRE, no slacking.

Why would Ribadu describe the govt of GEJ as a "sinking ship" if not to score cheap political points? Yes, Ribadu has the right to criticise the govt but I dont think sweeping statements like "sinking ship" or "urging the Nigerian youths to rise up and take the country" can be regarded as criticisms. If anything, it is a vicious attack on the govt and Abati's response is justified.

If Ribadu thinks the reforms going on in the power sector is wrong, he can criticise it and if possible proffer alternative. Ditto for any other sector. That is criticisms.

Gbawe:

My dear brother, are you not at all concerned that team GEJ is fighting everything and everyone? The cabals we asked GEJ to come and fight he has befriended and become chummy with while your messiah has now decided to alienate all good and well-respected Nigerians from every corner of the nation. We don't need a rocket scientist to tell us where things are heading. Increasing isolation and paranoia is one of the most definitive signs a government is on the way out.

Sincere 9gerian:
For you, all it takes to be a "good and well-respected Nigerian" is to wear the tribal marks of Tinubu's APC.

eGuerrilla:

Abati has become sufficiently detached from his recent past that he no longer recognises duplicity or even irony.




Source

Sincere 9gerian:
There's no point resurrecting 1914 articles. This same govt invited Ribadu to head one of the committees that investigated the oil and gas sector in 2012. That was when the going was good. But now, levels don change. Ribadu has returned to Tinubu's APC and he opened FIRE on GEJ govt first. Abati ONLY returned FIRE.

Sincere 9gerian: Notwithstanding my respect for Ribadu, its FIRE-FOR-FIRE, no slacking.

Why would Ribadu describe the govt of GEJ as a "sinking ship" if not to score cheap political points? Yes, Ribadu has the right to criticise the govt but I dont think sweeping statements like "sinking ship" or "urging the Nigerian youths to rise up and take the country" can be regarded as criticisms. If anything, it is a vicious attack on the govt and Abati's response is justified.

If Ribadu thinks the reforms going on in the power sector is wrong, he can criticise it and if possible proffer alternatives. Ditto for any other sectors. That is constructive criticisms.

By the way, what sector of our national life can be described as "sinking" under GEJ? Is it the railways, aviation, federal roads, health, education, anti-corruption, job creation, life expectancy, foreign reserves, sports, elections, freedom of speech, freedom of the press, rule of law, institutional growth and development, security, electric power,etc? We have seen significant PROGRESS in most of these sectors in the last 2-3yrs.

It Is Jonathan That Is Ethically Challenged And Not Me - Ribadu



Mr. Abati earlier chastised Mr. Ribadu over his comments on the Jonathan administration.

The presidential candidate of the Action Congress of Nigeria in the 2011 elections, Nuhu Ribadu, has reacted to the statement of presidential spokesperson, Reuben Abati, which condemned the former anti-corruption chief for criticising the Jonathan administration.

Mr. Ribadu said “Reuben Abati’s statement, typical of his increasingly desperate personality, has exposed him as a fraud of a presidential spokesman who does not have the simplest level of media literacy.”

Mr. Abati had described Mr. Ribadu as being blinded by ambition for criticising the Jonathan administration and describing it as “a sinking ship.”

Mr. Ribadu, pioneer chairman of the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission had criticised the Goodluck Jonathan administration while addressing students of the Ahmadu Bello University, Zaria, on Saturday.

In his reaction, Mr. Abati accused Mr. Ribadu of lawlessness while being the EFCC, a claim the opposition leader described as “falsehood.”

“It is unfortunate that he (Mr. Abati) stands on crooked crutches of rehashed falsehoods fabricated by corrupt politicians prosecuted by Mallam Nuhu Ribadu, in his desperate attempt to hold on to his job,” the former anti-corruption chief said in a statement sent to the media by his aides.

“His conjectured statement is a sad commentary on the type of people we have in the helms of our affairs: even with the resources at his disposal, Abati could not conduct a little research to save himself from embarrassment before he set out barking.”

“It is a huge gaffe for Abati to charge Ribadu of ingratitude as the latter has more valid stand to make similar accusation having been betrayed after his selfless service to the nation in the Petroleum Revenue Task Force committee.

“The question of who is ethically challenged, however, is left for Nigerians to answer.

“This too shall pass,” Mr. Ribadu said in the statement.

Ikengawo:
It is only a shameless man that will turn around and accept to be the political lackey of a man he once openly accused of corruption at various times between 2004 and 2007. Now that he has been used and abused by the undemocratic overlords that reign over the ACN and fearing that he may soon be dumped now that that vehicle is about to be subsumed into the so called All Progressives Congress, Ribadu is desperately seeking fresh relevance.

Ribadu’s descent into a moral abyss since leaving the exalted office of EFCC Chairman, his equally ethically-challenged new friends and his willingness to vituperate against any person or institution he perceives as a challenge to the fulfillment of his unattainable ambitions, have clearly exposed him for what he truly is – a thoroughly unprincipled attention-seeker whose entire career in the public service was built on bootlicking and doing the bidding of the powers of the day without a care for legality which should have been his primary concern as an officer of the law.