Thursday, August 7, 2008

Ribaduism and Ribadu blues


The nation is suffering from Ribaduism at the moment. What is Ribaduism? It is the feeling you get when you've stepped on a lot of toes on your way up and those toes come to crush you when you are at your most vulnerable point. Yesterday the papers reported that Nuhu Ribadu, erstwhile EFCC chairman has been demoted from the rank of an Assistant Inspector General of Police, AIG, to that of a Deputy Commissioner of Police, DCP.

As if that was not grave enough, today reports have it that Ribadu has been sent packing from the executive refresher course he was attending at NIPSS, Jos because his new rank cannot allow him to continue with the pprogramme. I guess you cannot make omelette without breaking eggs, huh?

My heart goes out to Ribadu even though I think he might have deserved some of the flak he is receiving at the moment. He did step on some toes while trying to please his political godfather OBJ in his anti-corruption fight. For most of the campaign against corruption in Nigeria, many people believed that Ribadu was just hounding the enemies of OBJ and not really stamping out corruption. But it cannot be said that he didn't make any meaningful impact. So it begs the question; who will ever stand up to fight against corruption in this country knowing that he will suffer the consequences when he is no longer in office?

Is it possible that Dora Akunyili who, like Ribadu, has fought against importers of fake killer drugs through NAFDAC will suffer the same fate? It seems we have a short memory span in this country. Hosannah! today, crucify him! tomorrow.

There are obviously more questions than there are answers.

3 comments:

  1. http://www.nigeriancuriosity.com/2008/08/ribadu-demoted-likely-to-be-arrested.html

    You have got to check the above link.

    I like the way you ended this: Hossana today, curicfy him tomorrow. So typical of Nigeria!!!

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  2. May i crave your indulgence to visit www.nigeriancuriosity.blogspot "RIBADU DEMOTED; LIKELY TO BE ARRESTED" with respect to this post. Check the comments especially. Thank you.

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  3. A reader pointed me to your post. I love the catchy title - Ribaduism - it is apt.

    I actually argued that it is because Ribadu chose to begin targeting those to OBJ that he ended up in this mess - Etteh, Ibori, Obasanjo-Bello. What do you think?

    Nevertheless, I really liked your outlook on the situation. You definitely have a repeat reader.

    NIGERIAN CURIOSITY
    IT WAS SO MUCH EASIER WHEN I ONLY HAD ONE...

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