24022021 - Banditry designed to 9 destroy Nigeria — GOVS

28 — Vanguard, WEDNESDAY, FEBRUARY 24, 2021
EFCC: Bawa as game-changer
By JOHN OLORUNTOBA parts of the world. Aside being a Certified
Fraud Examiner, CFE; Certified Anti-
WITH the appointment of Money Laundering Specialist, CAMS, he
Abdulrasheed Bawa, President was also trained by the United States
Muhammadu Buhari may have finally Federal Bureau of Investigation, FBI,
found the magic wand to reinvigorate the United States Financial Crime
Economic and Financial Crimes Enforcement Network, FINCEN, the
Commission, EFCC, and combat graft. World Bank, the United Nations Office of
This was the preponderant thinking Drug and Crimes, the Nigeria Police
among stakeholders following the Force, the Nigeria State Security Services,
statement announcing a change of guard the EFCC Academy and United
at the iconic Tunde Idiagbon House, thus Kingdom’s Global Training Consulting.
sealing the hopes of embattled Ibrahim Armed with such variegated training
Magu to return to his exalted office after from such top-notch institutions, it can
his dramatic suspension last year and even then be said that EFCC has finally come
melodramatic trial by the Justice Ayo under the command of a young turk
Salami-led panel.
weaned on EFCC’s originating doctrine -
EFCC came into being in 2003 as part forensic and professional approach to
of a national response to address the tackling corruption.
challenge posed by the Financial
Action Task Force on Money
Laundering, FATF, which had
indicted Nigeria as one of 23
countries that were not
cooperating in the global efforts
to fight money laundering.
In seeking power in 2015,
President Buhari had anchored
his promise to the nation around
three key pillars - security, anticorruption
and economy. Aside
sundry allegations of impropriety
levelled against Magu which
necessitated his removal,
government insiders had often
confided that the president’s
vision of the anti-graft agency all
along is one driven by core
professionals independent of the
police.
From his own rich experience
in governance over the past five
•Abdulrasheed Bawa, EFCC chairman designate
decades, President Buhari is said
to be of the view that specialised agencies
like EFCC are better run by core
professionals exposed to vigorous
specialised training. Until now, all past
chief executive officers of the commission
- from Ribadu to Farida Waziri to Ibrahim
Lamorde to Magu - were seconded to the
commission from the police.
But Magu
had the
distinction of
being the
o n l y
chairman to
have served
more than
five years in
At 40, welleducated
and
decorated, Bawa
obviously brings
youthful energy
to the table
a c t i n g
capacity. The serial nominations of Magu
to the Senate by President Buhari after
repeated rejections were said to have been
informed by a powerful lobby within the
ruling party alleging blackmail, whipping
up the sentiments that his confirmation
was being stalled only because he had
acted against the interests of principal
officers of the Senate, including the then
Senate president, Bukola Saraki.
At 40, well-educated and decorated
Bawa obviously brings youthful energy to
the table, perhaps serving as a signal that
President Buhari is quite conscious of the
growing popular clamour for more
inclusiveness of younger Nigerians in the
commanding height of governance.
Aside a Bachelor of Science degree in
Economics from Usmanu Danfodio
University in Sokoto, he obtained a
Masters in International Affairs and
Diplomacy from the Usman Danfodio
University in 2012. He is currently
studying for a Bachelor of Laws, LLB,
degree at the University of London.
But much more significant is the fact
that Bawa belongs to the select cadre who
joined the commission from foundation
as cadets and were bred and mentored by
Nuhu Ribadu widely acclaimed as the
most impactful chairman of the anti-graft
commission in history.
Since joining the commission in 2004
as Assistant Detective Superintendent, the
chairman-designate has undergone
several specialised trainings in different
“By settling for someone who joined the
commission as a greenhorn and has
undergone rigorous training locally and
internationally, and has indeed risen
through the ranks in the past 17 years, the
deduction one can make is that President
Buhari is determined to do things
differently this time in order to achieve a
different outcome,” said Mr. Benjamin
Anyaoku, a senior researcher at the
University of Abuja.
In his last posting as the head of the
Lagos operations, Bawa definitely showed
capacity and character. Of course, Lagos
is the biggest operations zonal office of
the EFCC with 604 officers.
Under his watch, EFCC secured 227
convictions. He supervised the
investigation of all cases in the Port
Harcourt Zonal office in which a record
215 convictions were secured in eleven
months. He also secured the final
forfeiture of hundreds of property to the
Federal Government.
Bawa supervised the investigation of all
cases in the Ibadan Zonal office in which
113 were concluded and 54 were charged
to court within six months. He was
involved in the recovery of millions of
dollars worth of property belonging to
former Minister of Petroleum Resources,
Diezani Allison-Madueke.
He was also involved in the fraud cases
involving former Governor of Niger State,
Dr. Muazu Babangida Aliyu. He equally
participated in several other periodic
raids on notorious 419 cyber cafés.
It is perhaps a measure of his
professional brilliance and dedication
that he received the EFCC Merit Award in
2020. Just as he earned the appreciation
of the US Federal Bureau of Investigation
(Criminal Investigative Division) in 2019
after facilitating the collaboration
between the EFCC and the FBI, which
resulted in a mutual fight against
Economic and Financial Crimes on an
international scale.
Definitely, with Bawa, Nigerians can
look forward to a reinvigorated EFFC in
the times ahead.
*Oloruntoba, a security expert, wrote from
Abuja.