Dear Mr. President,
I write to you with profound respect and inestimable concern for your office and person. As a Nigerian, one of your subjects, I feel it would be most unpatriotic if I fail to draw your attention to certain administrative inconcinnities in this nation of ours; after all, Nigeria is the collective property of Nigerians – region, colour, and language distinction notwithstanding.
I may not have the toga of acclaimed celebrated writers in Nigeria, even though I must execrate that I have a voice and fantastic readership in my own subtle way, for I am a very functional advocate of good governance on various information media. I felt impelled to write to the Number One citizen of my country because it dawned on me, after digesting several literatures on leadership, that for leadership to be effective, the leader and the led must play their roles symbiotically.
It is in tandem with the foregoing that I find my letter most timely and apropos to the much chorused Change project – the same reason your Government is in power. I make bold to say that the project called Change can only achieve its desired purpose when the leader and the led enjoy cordial relationship to the gamut that issues bordering on the wellbeing of the nation are rigorously discussed prior to execution. Thus, this letter should come across to you as a product of national obligation, since to be silent in the face of our national throes is itself a wing of corruption punishable by a good conscience in the Court called Patriotism. I crave your indulgence as I veer into the crux of this open letter. Please bear with me for reaching you via this means, for it is my intention to challenge other docile Nigerians to, in lieu of making incendiary remarks about governance, follow suit.
Your Excellency, the EFCC, ICPC, DSS, and sundry law enforcement agencies were all established by law to judiciously stem the tide of recurrent financial and criminal acts in Nigeria. The Government of Obsanjo’s, one of your predecessors, must have figured that our Judiciary was being pressured by the panoply of cases, making it slow and dysfunctional, the same reason some minor cases had dragged on for years, denying parties justice sought. It must have been on this basis that special units saddled with the primary duty of checking crimes that border on financial impropriety and money laundering were established and legislatively given force to operate. I will not fail to evince my displeasure at the chasm between the operation of the actual EFCC and the documented one, since what we had was a financial crime agency that became the dog subservient to the dictates of the executive, with full readiness to be sicced at anyone the President of the time regarded as his perceived political foe. Sir, this became the order of the day, and anyone that wanted to escape the wrath of the agency had to kowtow to the dictates and malfeasance of the President of Nigeria. The aftermath of this act was the loss of confidence the body received from Nigerians. In the immediate previous dispensation, the one you succeeded, Sir, most Nigerians noticed that financial crime was not fought as vigorously as it used to be, the reason being that the Government concentrated on delivering true dividends of democracy to Nigerians. Some Nigerians that had acclimatized to the wildness of the agency rent the nation with complaints about its inactivity under Jonathan, but the likes of Femi Falana, SAN, has told us that Dr. Goodluck Ebele Jonathan was quietly fighting crime while contriving to rejuvenate the economy. Your Excellency, it thus means that the financial crime agencies became civil in their approach to crime under the ousted Jonathan’s regime. Those of us that are well learned saw this as worthy of applause.
Your Excellency, the financial crime bodies have returned to the era of impunity since May, 2015, as they forcibly and forcefully go for suspects and keep same in their basement-based prison facilities without Court orders. The case of Barr. Robert Azibaola’s, amongst numerous others, is a case in point. The said Barr. R. Azibaola was apprehended on March 23rd by men of the EFCC and have, since then, neither been charged nor taken to any Court of competent jurisdiction. Your Excellency, this is a very bad practice because the EFCC is not empowered by any known law to try any person. It is the duty of the EFCC and its sister agency to do their findings, apprehend suspects on the basis of such, and charge the accused to Court within 24 hours. More disturbing is the fact that the suspect has not been allowed to see his wife and kids since being locked up, which is not in congruence with the law. We, as concerned citizens of Nigeria, are worried that Nigeria, if the action of the EFCC is not checked, is on the road to perdition. I dare say that the unlawful detention of financial crime suspects, as good as it seems, has become a dent on this Government, as people are beginning to wonder whether we are in the military junta anew. I have decided to bring this issue to your notice because I know that it rubs off on your leadership, since the failure or success of Nigeria rests on your shoulders.
Your Excellency, it will irk you to note that Barr. R. Azibaola, since March, the month of his arrest, has shown signs of ailing health to the utter disregard of the EFCC. It is noteworthy that his crime is not a capital one, since he is not being accused of killing anyone. It is, ipso facto, unlawful and most corrupt of the EFCC to continue to deny this man medical attention! Unconfirmed report has it that he has passed out three times in the gallows. This does not speak well of your Government, Your Excellency. The officers of the EFCC have to be called to order lest they make the world see Nigeria as a democratic in the books, but tyrannical on ground. This letter is written out of the need to remind you of your Oath of Office. You stood before the mammoth crowd in Abuja in May, 2015, and pledged that you would be for everyone, Your Excellency. Barr. Azibaola is a citizen of Nigeria in the same way a northerner and a westerner are. His family, friends, confidants, and acquaintances, one of whom yours truly is, feel that the State called Nigeria has been most unfair to the travails of this man in the hand of the EFCC. I share this thought, sir. I feel the financial crime agency has overreached itself by detaining a suspect for 57 days without charging him to any Court, and whenever and wherever any law enforcement agency adopts an illegal means in its pursuit of “justice”, its action becomes ultra vires and illegitimate, since government and its entire functional apparati exist from and for the people.
Your Excellency, the aforesaid agency, EFCC, exacerbated an already egregious situation when it illegally closed the accounts of the wife and children of Barr. Robert Azibaola. This is the height of administrative impunity, Mr. President! It is the final straw that broke the camel’s back! At this rate, the financial crime institution has become an object of oppression of the rights of defenseless Nigerians. My take on this, and I beseech you to hearken, is that the EFCC has gone wild and become inimical to both the Government and the governed in Nigeria. The deleterious consequence of this ignominious act of the officers of the EFCC is that Nigerians will no longer be at ease to approach the institution. In another vein, Your Excellency, this body is capable of pitching your Government against the entire people of Nigeria. The action of the EFCC, if not stemmed, is capable of eroding whatever is left of the change project. You are the Commander-in-Chief of the Armed Forces in Nigeria, Your Excellency. I am urging you to act ex officio by ordering the EFCC to charge Barr. Azibaola to Court. The EFCC is not empowered by law to hold a suspect for 57 days without a Suit Number in any Court. This action of the agency’s is tyrannical and oppressive.
Your Excellency, I have written to you because of my disturbing observation. Yes, I am perturbed that this has become a recurrent norm, since even Femi Fani-Kayode, who personally honoured the invitation by the same agency, has been detained for 9 days without any charge in any Court of competent jurisdiction. Dear President, Nigeria is in the doldrums, and you are the only one that can salvage the situation. The situation in the country has become precarious, Mr. President. We believe you mean well for this nation, but we are beginning to see vestiges of an imminent dark cloud. Nigerians have become afraid to air their minds because of the celerity in which constructive critics of the Government are hounded. The aftermath of the clamp down on critics is the incidence of criminal silence in the face of obvious atrocious acts. The EFCC is supposed to boost our confidence, but having become an agent of oppression, we are afraid to say it is now our national problem. The agency needs to be reminded that nobody should be in its cell for more than 24 hours. Please, Your Excellency, wade into this matter and restore hope in Nigerians. We need to be reassured that the Federal Government of Nigeria is for Nigerians, irrespective of religion, region, and language. The best way to reinvigorate the confidence of Nigerians is by getting all apparati of Government function optimally and lawfully. The EFCC has become a dent on this Government. I am of the stance that its activities should reflect the change promised Nigerians prior to and on May, 2015.
Your Excellency, the case against Barr. Robert Azibaola, Managing Director of Kakatargroup, is premised on money transferred to his account by the former NSA, Dasuki. This crime, if tenable, can be properly investigated and dealt with without detaining him for 57 whole days! In the eyes of the law, this unlawful detention is even more criminal than the purported crime. I dare say so because the money, if truly in Azibaola’s possession, can be reclaimed. However, the emotional and physical trauma caused the accused by prolonged detention is not redeemable. Mr. President, I am very sure that if you were incarcerated unlawfully the way Barr. Azibaola and Femi Fani-Kayode are, you would not be happy because of the telling effect it would have on your wife(ves) and children. It is against that backdrop that I am pleading with you to command the EFCC to reopen the accounts of Barr. Robert Azibaola’s wife and children. I also beseech you to urge the agency to charge the duo of Barr. Azibaola and Fani-Kayode to Court in line with their constitutional rights. Lastly, Your Excellency, rumour is rife that Barr. Robert Azibaola has been rendered incommunicado because he does not want to implicate the former President, Dr. Goodluck Ebele Jonathan. I do not want to swallow this acrid pill, but it calls for serious investigation. Please constitute a team that will investigate this claim.
My dear President, please prove to Nigerians that you are truly “for everyone and not for anyone” by personally looking into Barr. Robert Azibaola’s and Femi Fani-Kayode’s cases. I believe the Gen. Muhammadu Buhari I grew up to hear about will act with the needed speed in a matter like this. I remain a very young concerned Nigerian. I was pained by the criminal silence of those I used to see as activists in Nigeria. However, as a law-abiding citizen of Nigeria, I did not want to conclude in a hurry that you are part of this atrocity. Please exhaust the powers conferred on you by the Constitution on this matter. May God continue to grant you the requisite administrative suaveness in Jesus’ name.
I remain
Yours truly,
Russell Idatoru Bluejack
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