By
Felix Oboagwina
As the nation waits for the unveiling of the next Chairman of the anti-corruption agency, the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC), question on people’s lips is whether President Bola Ahmed Tinubu has the guts to break the North’s monopoly of the seat. Such a feat will be history making.
Abdulrasheed Bawa, the currently suspended CEO of EFCC, happens to be the sixth Northerner to mount the agency’s saddle back-to-back, since its creation 20 years ago in 2003. He is the fourth substantive head with two taking the post in acting capacity. Buhari’s appointment of Jega, Kebbi State-born Bawa brought the agency under the management of an unbroken stream of six Northern Muslims. One Northerner has handed the baton to another Northerner six times! In fact, since EFCC’s inception 20 years ago, Northerners have monopolised the institution’s driving seat completely. Following the anti-graft body’s creation in 2003, it has never seen a Southerner head it. Its all-North cast includes: Nuhu Ribadu, Farida Waziri (Mrs.), Ibrahim Lamorde (twice), Ibrahim Magu, AbdulRasheed Bawa and now Abdulkarim Chukkol.
That list of six EFCC CEOs features not one single Southerner.
Comparatively, the pendulum of leadership at the Independent Corrupt Practices Commission (ICPC), EFCC’s more introverted twin, has swung between Northern and Southern administrators. President Olusegun Obasanjo established ICPC in 2000 with Justice Mustapha Akanbi as pioneer Chairman. ICPC has passed through the hands of seven heads, balanced out four-three in a South-North distribution. Apart from Akanbi and its current Chairman, Professor Bolaji Owasanoye, ICPC has had Southerners like Justice Emmanuel Ayoola and Barrister Ekpo Una Owo Nta at its wheel, while the North’s quota has been filled by: Professor Uriah Angulu, Dr. Rose Abang-Wushishi and Barrister Abdullahi Bako.
In contrast, EFCC has turned into a no-fly zone for Southerners.
Yet no sanctimonious reason informs why Southerners have been precluded from post.
Even the pioneer Chairman of EFCC, Nuhu Ribadu, lately appointed as National Security Adviser, left in shady and controversial circumstances. He finally went AWOL. Bawa too leaves in a blaze of controversy. His adversaries swear they have indubitable evidence of him and his family living a lifestyle far above his earning limits as an EFCC CEO. Bawa’s only defence to accusations of corruption has come on two fronts –to counter-accuse his accusers and to issue the infantile shield that no man is above temptation. Such defences don’t just cut it! Anyhow, just like his equally compromised predecessors, Bawa will get a soft landing. Whatever happens, Bawa, the youngest occupant of the EFCC driving seat at age 40, will be going the way of his predecessors –controversial, uncelebrated and contaminated. Goodbye, Bawa.
Next focus: Who succeeds Bawa at EFCC? Which part of the country should the next EFCC Chairman come from?
Settling the matter may be a constitutional issue. It “IS” a constitutional issue. Nigeria’s 1999 Constitution says in Section 14(3): The composition of the Government of the Federation or any of its agencies and the conduct of its affairs shall be carried out in such a manner as to reflect the federal character of Nigeria and the need to promote national unity, and also to command national loyalty, thereby ensuring that there shall be no predominance of persons from a few State or from a few ethnic or other sectional groups in that Government or in any of its agencies.
The preponderance or totality of the EFCC’s headship have been from one section of the country and has failed “to reflect the federal character of Nigeria and the need to promote national unity, and also to command national loyalty….”
As President, Tinubu has the task to entrench Federal Character and end the North’s monopoly of this Federal agency. That monopoly has given the North a sense of entitlement and ownership of the EFCC. The same monopoly obtains at the FCT, whether by omission or commission. The FCT? That is a matter for another day.
When the rumour mills went wild with the gist that former Lagos State’s Commissioner of Police, Hameed Odumosu, would be the next anti-corruption czar at the EFCC, nationalists Okayed his choice for one pivotal reason –this first-class material hails from the South and his coming would break the North’s hegemony in the agency. Odumosu is Yoruba from the South. His appointment would have answered to the quest for national representation in the headship of the agency. However, that prospect failed to fly as indications have emerged that Tinubu had not looked in that direction.
Pundits cross their fingers in the hope that Tinubu would select EFCC’s next CEO from the South. There are eminently qualified security professionals from the South-East, South-South and South-West to take the EFCC chairmanship.
Any holier-than-thou faith in Arewa officers has proved misplaced, for ironically, virtually all EFCC’s anointed henchmen (except one or two) have left office in disgrace, trailed by allegations of corruption! Magu and Bawa readily come to mind.
Clearly, the agency’s headship can no longer remain the sole birthright of one section of the Federal Republic of Nigeria.
As Nigeria’s President, Tinubu must muster the gumption and political will to invoke the Federal Character principle in the Constitution to which he swore, and finally appoint a qualified Southerner as the EFCC Chairman.
FELIX OBOAGWINA IS A JOURNALIST AND WRITES FROM LAGOS; HE IS REACHABLE VIA [email protected]