Rattled And Furious: President Jonathan Dismisses Nuhu Ribadu As ‘Ethically-Challenged’ Hypocrite

Nuhu Ribadu

In a furious response today, President Goodluck Jonathan dismissed as ‘false, hypocritical and self-serving,” the criticism by Mallam Nuhu Ribadu that under his leadership, Nigeria is a “sinking ship” in which the yearnings of the masses are being neglected by a tyrannical leadership.
Speaking through Reuben Abati, his adviser on Media on Publicity, Mr. Jonathan described Ribadu as resorting 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.”
Despite Mr. Jonathan officially maintaining he has not decided he will run for the presidency in 2015, the statement made clear he will, as it bristled at the presence of the former chairman of the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC) in the camp of the opposition All Progressives Congress (APC).
“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,” the presidential statement said.
It also accused Ribadu of ingratitude, and promised him the administration will remember him for it.  “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.”
Apparently particularly hurt by Ribadu’s accusation of tyranny, Mr. Jonathan attempted to turn the accusation back on the former EFCC chairman, saying he is the greater tyrant on account of the 2007 list of corrupt politicians the EFCC compiled without a court order.
The statement said, “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.”
Jonathan claimed that rather than being tyrannical as has been alleged by Ribadu, he will “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.”
The irony of the relationship between Jonathan and Ribadu is that, as chairman of the EFCC, Mr. Ribadu came very close to putting Mr. Jonathan in one jail cell, and his wife, Patience Jonathan, in another one in the women’s wing.
In 2006, Ribadu chaired the anti-corruption Joint Task Force which recommended Mr. Jonnathan, along with 14 other governors, for prosecution by the Code of  Conduct Bureau for false declaration of assets.  The recommendation was not carried out because President Olusegun Obasanjo, who had set up the panel, held on to the report and nominated Jonathan for Vice-President.
Similarly, twice in the same year, the EFCC under Ribadu announced it had stopped Mrs. Jonathan from laundering vast sums of money, the first time for N104 million, and then for $13.5 million.
At the Federal High Court in Abuja, Ribadu filed suit number FHC/ABJ/M/340/06 which specifically said that “Mrs. Jonathan money laundering case. “Mrs. Patience Jonathan, wife of the wife of the Governor of Bayelsa State, was the person who instructed one Hanner Offor to launder the said sum of N104,000,000 into the account of Nansolyvan Public Relations Limited with First Bank of Nigeria Plc (FBN), Niger House, Marina, Lagos.”
None of those cases was discharged or denied while Mr. Ribadu was in office.
Strangely, upon his return from exile in 2010, he denied both cases against Mrs. Jonathan, blaming them upon some unnamed people who did not like her, without saying why his denial waited for four years or why there was no official report on the investigations.  Some observers felt he may have done a deal with Mr. Jonathan to be safely and profitably allowed back from exile in exchange for some perks for absolving Mrs. Jonathan of those problems.
In February 2012, Ribadu accepted to serve on the Petroleum Revenue Special Task Force set up by the Minister of Petroleum Resources, Mrs. Dieziani Alison-Madueke, describing it as a ‘national call’ to defeat corruption.  The report of the committee, which contained far-reaching recommendations about combatting corruption in the sector, was never implemented.
Not surprisingly, a disenchanted Ribadu has criticized the Jonathan government with growing vigor since then, leading to his call at the weekend for unity and revolution.
“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,” President Jonathan responded.
Given the tone of today’s press statement, the spectre of a revolution under his watch seems to have scared Mr. Jonathan indescribably.