STATEMENT OF EMERGENCY | NSpace

About a week ago I got a call from someone whose name and face is quite familiar to most Nigerians, having had the rare privilege of serving Nigeria as a minister without tainting his image. He had been dismayed that the mighty Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC) was at that instant raiding the home of Otumba Mike Adenuga of the ubiquitous Globacom, Conoil and Equatorial Trust Bank family of companies. My friend was worried about how such bad signals of the human rights posture of the administration may be defeating some of its recent gains in the global stage. My own initial shock had not been born out of any belief that Adenuga was an untouchable…nay, there should never be any sacred towers on our fields in our quest for a just and egalitarian realm. It was simply born out of surprise at the description of the “raid” which was akin to a SWAT offensive. whatever the laudable need of EFCC to continue doing its job , the whole episode may have further cemented the common belief in the minds of people that Nuhu Ribadu’s unit was born out of a Gestapo –styled response to perceived enemies of the state.