12072020 - Uzodinma, Ngige, Nnamani others meet, vow Igbo united front

SUNDAY VANGUARD, JULY 12, 2020, PAGE 9
'System that produced suspended
EFCC boss is weak'
By Chris Onuoha
r. Ivie Richard, an activist, is
MExecutive Director of
Corruption Observatory. Richard, in
this interview, analyses the Ibrahim
Magu probe. Excerpts:
Some people have described what
happened as power play. What do you
make out of it?
I have no doubt that a lot of
Nigerians may have been
jolted by the seeming arrest of
Magu. But so many other
Nigerians would not be that
surprised, judging from what
has been going on for a while
now. Magu as the Chairman
of EFCC has done quite some
good work while in office by
convicting some high profile
politicians, and he is also an
ardent expert in anti-fraud and
anti-money laundering issues.
Magu was the team leader of
the Special Finance Unit of the
Nigeria Police. He was
promoted as Chief
Superintendent of Police in
2003 and appointed the
Chairman of EFCC in 2015.
In 2010, Magu had an
altercation with the Police
Service Commission. He was
The primary
agencies that
ought to fight
corruption are
not doing their
job
warned because he was withholding some
EFCC files. Curiously, the 8th Senate refused
to confirm the appointment of Magu based
on intelligence report from the DSS. Part of
the intelligence report from the DSS said
Magu was occupying a residence rented for
N20million per annum, and paid for by one
Retired Air Commodore Umar Mohammed
and not the EFCC as would be expected. And
this same residence was furnished at the cost
of N43million by the FCTA through a contract
awarded to Messrs Africa Energy allegedly
owned by the same Umar Muhammed. Magu
is also said to have travelled for official duties
in a private jet owned by this same retired Air
Commodore. And that in one of those trips to
Maiduguri, both of them were in the company
of the MD of a bank allegedly complicit in the
case of the money allegedly traced to Diezani
Alison Madueke. And the icing on the cake of
By Emma Nnadozie
He was the National Coordinator of
‘I believe in President Buhari’, a
group that sprang up during
Buhari's first campaign for the presidency
and he waxed so strong that he was able to
garner huge followers from almost all the
states of the federation. Frank Ramsey
Ezike, who also prides himself as an activist,
in this interview, says he remains undaunted
in his belief in Buhari, stating that his anger
is that enemies are casting the Igbo in bad
light before the President.
Buhari’s 5th anniversary
During the campaign of President Buhari
in 2019, it was very tough being on his side,
because I am Igbo; and
most Igbo were made to
see him as very harsh. We
knew that we will have a
herculean task and we
went to a great extent to
correct that erroneous
impression of Buhari. We
chose the slogan, ‘I believe
in Buhari 2019’, with a
view to correcting that
impression and we are
happy to say that, at the
end of the day, we were
vindicated. I know that he
is working hard, only that
those who surround him
blocked a lot of things for
us the citizens to see the
benefits of his regime.
Achievements
He has achieved a lot.
Let me start from the
South-East because what
President Buhari has achieved in the
region, no President has ever done that. His
achievements are glaring and
unquantifiable to discerning Nigerians. For
the 16 years that PDP ruled Nigeria, the
South-East did not benefit anything in spite
of the fact that they dominated almost all
the key positions under Goodluck
Jonathan. For instance, Obasanjo
the saga is that the AGF had also come out to
say that Magu diverted part of the recovered
loot which Nigerians have been questioning
for a long time about what is happening to the
loot. Another story is that he has recklessly
and fraudulently engaged the sale of the seized
assets. Now, the case of Magu has to be
approached with a lot of caution because of
all these allegations are at the realm of
speculation. Yes, a lot of people say it is power
play. But for me, Magu is a close friend of the
Presidency and so is Malami. I
think it is a good that a high
profile panel is finally put in
place to unravel all of these
allegations and see if there is
any iota of truth.
When you say finally,
were you expecting
something like this before
now?
That is what I am telling you.
Imagine that Magu was
appointed in 2015, and he has
not been confirmed. At that
time, it was speculated that
then-Senate President did not
have good rapport with the
Presidency. But now, we have a
Senate that has good rapport
with the Presidency, and his
name has not been submitted
for confirmation even though
several high profile appointees
have been confirmed since the
9th Senate came into office.
What does this mean for the fight
against corruption?
The anti-corruption commission head has
to have an impeccable character and should
undergo a lot of sting operations before being
appointed and confirmed. And if you confirm
an appointee that has not passed those stings
operations, it means that you are putting the
country at risk. That is not in any way to say
that Magu is guilty. But I know that when you
go against people, people will certainly come
after you. But my point is that this issue must
be scrutinized and the truth unraveled, so that
Nigerians would know exactly what is at play
if it is just power play or if there is truth that
Magu is corrupt. Larmode (a former EFCC
Chairman) had similar experience, so also
was Waziri (another EFCC Chairman). In far
promised to repair the
Second Niger Bridge, but
we did not see anything.
Under Jonathan, the
situation was the same.
But, behold, it is a reality
today, almost 80 per cent
completed, courtesy of
Buhari. Talk about all
South-East roads or are
we going to talk about the
agricultural aspect?
Buhari developed the
attitude of investing in
agriculture, because, if
not for it, during the
outbreak of Covid-19,
Nigerians
would have
perished.
Had it been
that we
depended on
importation
of rice and
some other
things in
Nigeria, it
would have •Ramsey
b e e n
disastrous,
but the reason the masses are
eating today is because many
people are investing in local
production in agriculture. We
have been able to patronize our
local farmers; without that, a
bag of rice would have been sold
for N100, 000 during this Covid-
19 era. So, what I am saying is
that the Igbo love Buhari, and I
know that he loves us. But, the
problem is that the communication link we
are supposed to have is not there. It is so
yawning that it has created doubts. They
should make him accessible to most of us
who worked for him. I started the campaign
in 2018 before electioneering campaigns
even started. I inaugurated my state and
zonal coordinators for all the 36 states of
Nigeria. The event took place in a hotel at
Anthony village, Lagos, where I brought all
•Richard
away America, the head of FBI had similar
experience. So, in all of these things, it is always
proper to investigate if there was truth or it
was just power play or somebody was just
trying to be mischievous somewhere.
At this point, if Magu comes out of
this episode unscathed, could it still
be business as usual thereafter?
It will be an embarrassment to the country
if any of the allegations, no matter how small,
is proven to be correct. The truth of the matter
is that a commission like EFCC needs a
character that has impeccable integrity. But
my major worry is not this investigation that
is at play, it is the fact that the foundation of
our anti-corruption drive, the system is weak.
Now, imagine that Waziri also had this
problem, Larmode had it too, and a myriad of
Nigerians in public service have the same
problem; it all tells us that the systems are not
strong. I have been close to a committee of
this government and have opened up to them
that this government is not fighting corruption
the way it should be fought. There is no harm
in pursuing people who steal money and
making them to return the money and you jail
them, but if that’s what the government is
going to do, they have to jail about the three
quarter of Nigerians.
I understand that the EFCC does not
need petitions to swing into action.
the 36 states coordinators
and took care of their flight
tickets,
hotel
accommodation and their
welfare. We had all
coordinators, down to the
grassroots across all the 774
local governments and
powered by ‘Savers
E m p o w e r m e n t
Ambassadors Initiative’,
which I happened to be the
coordinator. I still believe in
President Muhammadu
Buhari, knowing full well
that Nigeria will not be good
overnight. They say that a
journey of a thousand miles
begins with a bold step.
Allegations of
marginalization
What I am saying is that
all the six geo-political
zones should be given a
clear sense of belonging
and nobody should feel
marginalized. We the Igbo
love him, there were lots of
people that voted President
Buhari in the South-East.
So, the erroneous
impression being created that easterners
hate Buhari is not true. There is something
I want to tell you, during the presidential
election, one political party offered me one
billion naira to sell my structure through
one of my zonal coordinators from the
North, and I rejected it, without even getting
a dime from Buhari or APC as a
government, but, because I love Buhari, I
refused to sell that structure to them, and I
thank God he won after everything, and I
know he will do a lot.
The structure
‘I believe in Buhari’ structure is still there
and intact. Any time our services are needed
by Buhari, we are ready to provide it.
Advice on how to carry everybody
along
Regarding that angle, is that an issue
of shortcomings on the part of the
EFCC?
I think it is a part of the national problem.
By the law setting up of the EFCC, if you have
linkage to the tune of about N3million, EFCC
is supposed to investigate it. But today, if you
take the case of N30million to the EFCC, you
will be wasting your time because there are
cases running into billions of naira to
investigate. And that is because the primary
agencies that ought to fight corruption are
not doing their job; anti-corruption is a proactive
activity. It is not reactive. EFCC is a
reactive agency and so also are the police and
the DSS. The real anti-corruption agencies
are the SON, the procurement body, the Code
of Conduct Bureau, the Public Complaint
Commission, they ought to be at the front
burner. But all of these are like they are
comatose. So, the EFCC is overwhelmed;
when every day, people come up with this case,
that case, they only look at the cases that bother
the country most to investigate. That’s not a
pass mark on part of the EFCC. I think the
administration and especially the committee
advising the President should do a lot more
work on how countries now battle corruption.
Corruption is not fought reactively. Anticorruption
is proactive; for instance, there are
some frameworks that should be but we don’t
have here. Number one is the framework that
would make Nigerians to be able to speak out
and be protected: The Whistleblowers Act. We
don’t have the Act, we only have a policy.
Number 2 is the service provider and receiver
framework – Servicom, we don’t have. We only
have a policy. We can go on and on. The most
important one that most countries don’t joke
with at all is the standard that the ordinary
and corporate citizens willingly abide by.
Talking about this investigation,
perhaps something that is important
is transparency. Just like the Minister
of State for Labour asked ‘how can you
expose corruption without cameras?’
How can we ensure transparency in
this case?
This is just the beginning. If you bar pressmen
from the primary hearing I am sure it will not
end without what happened there coming out
one way or the other. But ensuring
transparency would have meant that at least
one or two media agencies should have been
allowed into the place. But in the wisdom of
government, I don’t think it is all that bad; we
have to watch and see what comes out of it.
•Interview first aired on Channels
TV
Those saying the Igbo hate Buhari are enemies of progress – Ezike
All the six geopolitical
zones
should be given
a clear sense of
belonging and
nobody should
feel marginalized
I believe that Mr. President will carry
everyone along, at least this outbreak of
Covid-19 has taught everyone a lesson that
we are one. He has been doing so, but he
should put more efforts. He should put more
effort into security. The police, the DSS and
our soldiers are working, but more should
be done on security. In terms of corruption,
he deserves accolades for his steadfastness
and tenacity of purpose in spite of the odds.
On Boko Haram
Boko Haram has been there before Mr.
President came, and he has been doing
everything he could to stop the threat. So,
we believe that in due time, everything will
return to normalcy.
Convincing the Igbo on Buhari
I keep talking to my people, like during
the campaign time in my LGA in Nnewi
South, I made sure that I explained the
objectives of Buhari to our people who had
not been opportune to listen to news, and
many of them believed and voted for him.
On northern groups fleeing to the
South
What I know is that some people are trying
to create panic in our people, it is cheap
politics. I believe that our governors are
not sleeping. Do you think they will fold
their arms and watch the people they are
governing to just perish? We have security
agencies over there, we have
Commissioners of Police, we have army
barracks, so I don’t think what they are
saying is true.
On compensation for Buhari
supporters
They should believe what Buhari told us,
that people should vote for him based on
his credibility, which was what he told us
when we visited him. He doesn’t believe in
giving out money to campaign for him. We
should not look at the material things we
would benefit from him, what we should be
talking about is the infrastructures and
good things we would benefit from the
government.