The Presidency has described the views of a former
Chairman of the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC), Nuhu
Ribadu, at a lecture in Kaduna State on Saturday as hypocritical and
self-serving.
Mr Ribadu, at a lecture in Kaduna on Saturday, was said to have
declared that Nigeria is a “sinking ship” under President Goodluck
Jonathan with the yearnings of the masses being neglected by a
tyrannical leadership.
The Special Adviser on Media and Publicity to President Goodluck
Jonathan, Reuben Abati, in a statement on Monday said Mr Ribadu is
unethically biased.
He faulted Mr Ribadu’s position that Nigeria under President Jonathan was a sinking ship.
The statement reads in full:
“The 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 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
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.”
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