I am at a lost. Am terribly, completely totally at a loss and
I believe I have reached the hopeless junction as far as Nigeria is
concerned. The lust for power exhibited
by the defection of Nuhu Ribadu from the All Peoples Congress (APC) to the
Peoples Democratic (PDP) is unfathomable, not withstanding his right to freely
associate with whomsoever he chooses to associate. But I believe with the kind of public image
he cultivated in the past, it is a cruel deception on the teeming poor
Nigerians who erroneously believed he was the genuine article. May be I am taking the whole thing personal.
Can Ribadu truly sleep with both eyes open
on the same bed with Goodluck Jonathan, whom he classified as “one of the most
corrupt Nigerians I ever investigated while at EFCC and his level of corruption
even as deputy governor is just disturbing.
PDP is just a disaster and a total failure. Change is the only panacea”. This was as recent as 2011. Or even DSP Alamasiyegh, Jonathan’s boss, who
Ribadu humiliated by handcuffing him and dragging him from the comforts of
government house, Yenagoa to the imperial feet of Obasanjo? Or Ahmadu Adamu Mu’azu, the PDP national
Chairman, who was forced into self-exile by Ribadu for about two years before
returning to be made the national Chairman of a party Ribadu called “a disaster
and a total failure? Or the likes of Bode George who was forced to sharpen his
kleptocratic tendencies in the Kirikiri Prison finishing school?
This particular political move is
incomprehensible and unexplainable, no matter which way you analyse it. Yes, Ribadu have the right to associate with
the good, the bad and the ugly. That is
his prerogative. But it is also our
privilege to reject impostors and frauds.
It is also our right to choose the company we are identified with. While trying to absorb the fact that Ribadu
is now a PDP member, I was scandalised, to say the least, to see him on
television at the PDP Adamawa State Secretariat in company of the likes of the
former Adamawa State PDP Chairman and Secretary plus some other characters who
played leading roles in the financial rape of the state. The same people who
were leading actors in the promotion of nepotism, bad governance and architects
of the stunted political and structural growth bedevilling the state.
Was Ribadu all this while playing up a role
he knew that wasn’t him? Was he just exploiting the crave by Nigerians for good
governance and accountability? We
believed him. His constant invocation of
God’s name at whatever occasion he is allowed to talk; his contrived zeal and
passion to give the country a better society – a society where every leader
will be called to account for his deeds and misdeeds. We believed him and believed in him. We didn’t know it was all photo trick. We were gullible and trusting and look what
we got. At least even if he succeeds in
his quest for power, we know we are not getting the genuine article but a
counterfeit – forged in the same workshop as the likes of Bode George,
Alamaseiyegh, Andy Uba and the rest of the gang. We should be thankful to God that Ribadu
showed his true colours before he got into power.
Ribadu’s new associates are the same people
he castigated in the media, dragged to court in publicised cases with some
shedding tears like Saminu Turaki, including his former boss in the Police,
Tafa Balogun. His famed reputation was
solely built on these high profile prosecutions and media visibility. If today Ribadu choose to wine and dine with
these same people, how could I be convinced that all that happened in the past
was not a put up? Who do you trust in
the trench now? How can we move the
country in to the 21st century when our selfish agenda takes
precedence over national interest? Femi
Fani-Kayode was unmasked for what he is and not what he has been claiming to
be, are we witnessing the beginning of the demystification of Nuhu Ribadu?
Or may be we are at fault and looking out
for supermen among us who should be above board in a society noted for its
decadent life style. Why did we trust
and believe that Ribadu was different?
Was it because of the passion and zeal (sad to say, faked) he exhibited
while he was at the EFCC or was it our unquenchable yearning for good
governance which we only hear on the radio in other countries like Niger?
What ever was Ribadu’s selling power, I
believe many are now the wiser of the decade-long deception. It has been laid bare by the man
himself. Only thing is that he is
expecting the Adamawa people to still see him as a knight in shiny armour who
is out to rescue a damsel (Adamawa state) in distress. He has chosen his friends like the former
Chairman of the Adamawa State chapter of the PDP and his secretary, it is therefore
left to the people of the state to either choose to empower them with their
votes to continue the primitive style of leadership that they were rescued from
or tell them to go jump in River Benue for all they care.
Let’s tell those who are backing Nuhu Ribadu
to come and contest elections that they are backing the wrong horse. If we wanted Ribadu’s new friends to continue
lording it over us, no one would have celebrated Nyako’s ouster. There wouldn’t have been any need for any
by-election with all its attendant stresses, rancour and logistical
nightmares. With the new Nuhu Ribadu, I
would rather go Nyako. QED
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