Guardian

FORMER Chairman of the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC), Malam Nuhu Ribadu has been one of the most trenchant critics of the presidential pardon granted recently to erstwhile Bayelsa State Governor, Chief Diepreye Alamieyeseigha, who about seven years ago pleaded guilty to, and was convicted of corrupt offences. In an interview with ThisDay Lawyer on March 19, 2013, Ribadu said: “We have sent a terrible signal that fighting corruption is not in our culture, that go ahead, behave in the most despicable manner, it is our way, it is okay...DSP (Alamieyeseigha) actually pleaded guilty. This is very significant...And now government is coming to say that no, no, you are not even fair to yourself.”

Ribadu enjoyed a few years of dubious fame as the nemesis of corruption in Nigeria. But it did not take long for all to realise that behind the facade of a crusader, Ribadu was no more than the attack dog that was readily available to hound political opponents of President Olusegun Obasanjo (1999-2007). Both Alamieyeseigha and James Ibori (Delta State) ranked high on the hit list of the EFCC under Ribadu, because they were prizes that Obasanjo desperately wanted in proof, not of any genuine abhorrence of corruption, but rather of his dominion over the nation’s political space.

When attention was drawn at the time to his selective chase of alleged corrupt officials, Ribadu shouted himself hoarse that all governors who were in office were corrupt, and that his dossier on them would shame an Edgar Hoover, the renowned Director of FBI. Ribadu blamed the immunity clause in the Constitution as the hindrance to his locking up the governors and throwing away the keys to their respective cells. Even before 2010, when he was sent to the Nigerian Institute for Policy and Strategic Studies for a year-long course for which he whipped up unnecessary sympathy that evaporated subsequently, Ribadu as head of EFCC could not actualise his threat.

Nigerian voters were shocked beyond belief when, during the presidential election debate in 2011, Ribadu, who embarked on a hopeless effort as a presidential candidate of the Action Congress of Nigeria, ate his words that he never said that all governors whose tenure ended in 2007 were corrupt! That volte-face clarified the haze that had surrounded one of the most amazing occurrences during Ribadu’s grandstanding as an anti-corruption crusader. One of the former governors secured a perpetual injunction against any investigation into his financial dealings. What was perplexing about the EFCC’s response was its conniving failure to appeal the judgment. But, in keeping quiet and allowing the time delimited for appeal to elapse, and therefore make the perpetual injunction binding, Ribadu’s EFCC made a mockery of itself and cemented the widespread view that Ribadu was presiding over a witch-hunt of targeted individuals.

When it suits them, Nigerian public commentators are quick to invoke “global (international) best practices” as the measuring rod for our national policies and conduct. So, rather than see that the EFCC was the attack dog for the vindictive criminalisation agenda by an egotistic President who failed in his bid for a third term, and who looked the other way when the rot under his roof was stinking, people are still angry over the pardon granted Alamieyeseigha.

The vindictive prosecution and conviction of Alamieyeseigha abetted the view that was widespread at the time that political leaders of the South-South were mismanaging their oil wealth, and therefore the oil-bearing states did not deserve even the 13 per cent derivation stipulated in the Constitution. This argument was peddled mostly by Northerners. Yet, the North with all the money that it gets from the Federation Account has the highest rate of poverty, illiteracy, and disease in the country. Only recently have persons chiding South-South political leaders begun to keep quiet, seeing that development has been taking place in the region.

On the other hand, it is unthinkable that Northerners who have held offices as ministers or governors since 1999 have all been so saintly amid the decay in their region that none soiled his/her hands and the EFCC could not manage a successful prosecution of Northerners, as it did against Alamieyeseigha. Go to Dubai, Abu Dhabi, Saudi Arabia, and other havens in the Middle East and see the opulence displayed by Northern Nigerians. If ever any of them gets to be handcuffed, he is given a soft-landing, like the Police Pension thief.

Discerning Nigerians would recall that a few years ago, Nuhu Ribadu came under intense searchlight on a matter of integrity that was eventually explained away in an unsatisfactory manner. The issue at the time concerned questions about how Ribadu could have possibly raised the funds to purchase a house in a high-brow neighbourhood of Abuja, when Federal Government-owned houses were being sold to the public with occupiers of the property given first refusal. Ribadu and his defenders told the world that the EFCC czar at the time raised funds for the property by borrowing money from his father-in-law, a retired Justice. Thereafter, everything was hush-hush. But that should have been the beginning of serious investigation, because the defence raised more questions than answers.

If Ribadu borrowed money from his in-law, is the latter a financial institution? What were the terms of the facility borrowed by Ribadu? How did the in-law, a retired Justice, accumulate such money that he had a surplus to lend to his son-in-law? Of course, we can see that if we were to pursue this matter to its forensic and logical conclusion, the story of those who are grandstanding on anti-corruption will develop k-leg (knock knees).

Nigerian commentators must seek to probe into one other curious dimension of the Alamieyeseigha saga. Yes, he was standing trial in the United Kingdom; yes, he did not fulfil his bail conditions. That was in 2005, almost eight years ago. Why is it that the British government all these years has not mounted a vigorous campaign for the Nigerian government to extradite Alamieyeseigha to face trial in the British courts? Why has the United States government not called for Alamieyeseigha to be extradited, considering what the U.S. did to Noriega in the late 1980s? There must be so much that is unknown about the “international fugitive” issue than is obvious on the surface.

The total lack of interest by the British authorities in the Alamieyeseigha matter since 2005 takes us to another perspective that has been exploited by the anti-pardon group, who argue that because Alamieyeseigha is an “international fugitive,” he should never have been granted pardon by President Jonathan. This fuzzy perspective introduces a queer notion of extraterritoriality in criminal law. In general, criminal law is territorial, which means, simply, that what is a crime in one jurisdiction may not be a crime in another jurisdiction. Thus, the criminal law of a country is as defined by the legislature of that country.

Alamieyeseigha could only properly be pardoned for an offence he committed under Nigerian law. That much is evident from s. 175 of the 1999 Constitution (as amended), which provides inter alia that “The President may grant any person concerned with or convicted of any offence created by an Act of the National Assembly a pardon, either free or subject to lawful conditions”. Assuming Alamieyeseigha had been convicted under British law, a pardon by President Jonathan for such a conviction would be hollow, because the 1999 Constitution does not recognise the exercise of the prerogative of mercy for extraterritorial conviction.

No matter how emotional we may feel about it, the alleged offences (money laundering) for which Alamieyeseigha was standing trial in the United Kingdom do not belong to international crimes (such as genocide and crimes against humanity) for which nations are under obligation of international conventions to help enforce by not providing a safe haven for anyone wanted for such offences, nor is the act of jumping bail an “international crime”.

• Obua writes from Abuja.