Adamawa Without Nuhu Ribadu -By Gimba Kakanda

In commemoration of its twentieth anniversary last weekend, ThisDay newspaper honoured twenty outstanding Nigerians, described as “game changers”, who, as it explained, “have altered the landscape and made remarkably positive impacts in their chosen fields.” The honourees are accomplished personalities who have made a mark in both private and public service, enough to qualify for recognition as some of the most remarkable the nation has ever witnessed. Among the public servants honoured was the pioneer Chairman of EFCC, Mallam Nuhu Ribadu, for his buccaneering confrontation with the corrupt as head of the anti-graft agency in its most glorious era.

In the build-up to the last elections, even as a self-admitted APC sympathiser, I refused to join any of the Ribadu-bashing battalions in that moment of his political trial. Rather, I expected his defection to the PDP to serve as a challenge for the opposition party, which some of us perceived as ideologically stray, to put its house in order. My disappointment in Adamawa State was registered in the administration of Vice-Admiral Murtala Nyako who, even while flying the APC flag, was caught in the web of corruption, and further indicted by the reality of his underperformance, which he sought to play down when he embarked on his unfortunate conspiracy theory misadventure. And it’s actually sad that APC couldn’t rescue its drowning member from what was instigated by the opposing forces of the PDP then.

The case of Nyako as a face of the APC then was only a reminder that what the nation needed, which it still evidently does, are strong personalities. This was the basis of my support for Ribadu, defying partisan sentiments built to disrupt my support for his gubernatorial bid. My reason, aside from the obvious fact that the state needed a clever economic manager, was his antecedents as the man who revolutionised the anti-corruption crusade in this institutionally diseased and corrupt nation.

I argued that despite the aggregation of sentiments and resentments at his political choices, considered flawed, and justifiably so, it’s still amazing that no document has ever been tendered as an evidence of his compromising deals while heading the nation’s most vibrant anti-graft agency. Instead, he was praised, among many things, for rejecting a $15 million bribe from the then Governor of Delta State, James Ibori.

In my promotion of Ribadu’s bid to govern Adamawa State, I was countered from many fronts, but the most heartwarming are the messages and confessions of friends, readers and even senior colleagues who privately wrote to inform me that they are “mild” in criticising him because of me, because of my strong convictions, and that they were willing to give him the benefit of doubt to translate his political misstep into a fortune, if elected.

Though Ribadu lost the bid to govern Adamawa State, his absence in its seat of power is glaring. Just three months into the four-year administration in his state, some of Ribadu’s discerning critics, including Professor Adesanmi, have pointed out what I stood for, that despite the man’s flaws, he’s the best for Adamawa, noting Governor Jibrilla Bindow’s embarrassing start…

One of the foremost people fond of teasing me for supporting Ribadu, despite his collapsing political capital, was the fire-spitting critic, Professor Pius Adesanmi. In my exchanges with many public analysts, I justified their resentment at his political choice, especially their excuse that he betrayed the “Change” movement, which many of us passionately advocated, clashing with the Jonathanian mob hired to upset the critical citizens.

In my engagement with these perceptive and understandably disappointed supporters, I emphasised that while Ribadu was not an angel, Nigeria does not have many heroes, and that the inability of even his most unforgiving political foes and critics to portray him as evidently corrupt, despite the temptations and vengeful rage, deserved a certain leniency in this slaughterhouse of heroes.

Adesanmi’s expressed disappointment in Ribadu was his political doublespeak – that he would say ‘A’ here and the next day he’s whistling the tale of ‘B’. Strangely, this habit has been displayed by almost all the frontline politicians of our time. Our President himself was recorded to have said, during his turbulent political bids, that the last election was his final shot at Aso Rock. Yet he ate those words. And one of the his closest “disciples” today, the Governor of Kaduna State, Mallam Nasir El-Rufai, also once famously described Buhari as “perpetually unelectable”.

Though Ribadu lost the bid to govern Adamawa State, his absence in its seat of power is glaring. Just three months into the four-year administration in his state, some of Ribadu’s discerning critics, including Professor Adesanmi, have pointed out what I stood for, that despite the man’s flaws, he’s the best for Adamawa, noting Governor Jibrilla Bindow’s embarrassing start; earmarking N200 million for prayers by religious clerics, appointing a man as Commissioner for Women Affairs, and even the sad inability to restructure the ministries, with too many duplicated, portending a reign of wastefulness and sustenance of the conservative order built by Governor Murtala Nyako. Even as I wrote this, as if to validate our disappointment, a headline on Premium Times screams, “Adamawa Assembly approves 35 advisers, 50 development area administrators for Gov. Bindow”.

The only reason some personalities are celebrated in Nigeria is because they haven’t been elected or appointed and given a stage to prove they are actually clowns, and not the idealists we took them for. The next four years may see some of these present heroes pathetically vilified and recorded as a mistake made in ignorance. May God save us from us.

Twitter: @gimbakakanda