Us Questions Maduekwe On Corruption, Ribadu

Minister of foreign Affairs, Ojo Maduekwe, has been made to answer some hard questions by the international community following what is being regarded as a decline in Nigeria’s fight against corruption mirrored in the seeming ‘harassment’ of the former helmsman of the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC), Nuhu Ribadu.
Maduekwe, speaking to newsmen, Tuesday, in Abuja, noted that these subjects formed the key issues raised by United States policy makers, who he conferred with during his official visit to Washington D.C. last week.
Ojo Maduekwe
In defence of the present administration, the minister noted that there has been no decline in the fight against corruption, but just more focus on good governance and the observance of due process.
Acknowledging the difference between the approaches of the past and present government, the minister explained that the methods employed by the Obasanjo regime was necessary at that time when the nation was in dire need of control, saying, however, now was the time to thoroughly respect the rule of law and fundamental human rights.
He said, “There can be a corrupt way of fighting corruption, when you ignore that the accused also has rights, that an accused is presumed innocent until proven guilty. Nigeria is capable of trying the corrupt people by it.”
Maduekwe though commending Ribadu’s time at the EFCC, noted that the incidents surrounding his recent fall-out with the authorities was unfortunate, noting, however, that it was not enough to attract international intervention.
According to him, he told the US officials that “there is no need for diplomatic intervention. What we need is capacity building for our officials to fight corruption, but even that should not come with strings attached. We would not accept any lecture on this matter from any nation no matter how powerful. We would not tolerate any meddling.”
Notably, these events would most likely affect Nigeria’s ratings with Transparency International (TI), an independent international body that rates the degree of corruption in a nation, a possibility Maduekwe says would affect more the integrity of TI than Nigeria “because I don’t see why the problem between one employee and his employer should affect the perception of our transparency especially in the light of the great strides the nation has made.”