F ollowing the rejection of the confirmation of Mr. Ibrahim Magu, for the second time as the substantive Chairman of the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission by the Senate due to security reports by the Department of State Security Service, prominent Nigerians have expressed their feelings on the development.
This is against the backdrop of the fact that both the DSS and EFCC are sister security and anti-graft agencies under the Presidency.
Below are their views:
Presidential candidate of the National Conscience Party in the 2015 general elections, Mr. Martin Onovo:
Magu is clearly corrupt because the DSS has evidence against him. From my objective point of view, the rejection of the acting chairman of EFCC by the Senate reflects the failure of the leadership on the part of the Presidency, because the Presidency leads and others follow.
Whether you are EFCC, DSS, Nigerian Army, Police, you follow the political leadership as represented by the Presidency. What we are seeing is a failure of leadership because the Presidency, before nominating anybody for any strategic position, should have requested for security clearance. So, the question now is that did the Presidency get clearance on Magu before approaching the Senate?
Another thing is that if the Presidency got a security clearance on Magu, there is no way the DSS would have come back to say Magu is unfit. So, apparently, the Presidency did not get security clearance, which would amount to either abuse of office or incompetence. Once the leadership is wrong, many things will go wrong; which is what we are seeing right now. The Presidency is the supreme commander of the DSS; the DG of DSS cannot override its position and what we have is the situation where the DG, DSS has overridden the position of the President.
If the President says someone is good and you say the person is not good, it means you have overridden his opinion. Now the question is that is Magu fit for the position of the EFCC chairman? The EFCC under Farida Waziri indicted Magu, the Police Service Commission under Mike Okiro also indicted him and now the DSS under Lawal Daura has also indicted him. These are not coincidence.
Because of one man, Buhari wants to destroy all the institutions of the government. For him, EFCC, Police Service Commission and the DSS are all wrong because of Magu. No, the Presidency is only creating a stronghead dictatorship. All the superior law enforcement agencies have indicted Magu, but he says he is still a good candidate. Infact, he should be demoted and dismissed from the police.
Afenifere chieftain and member of the defunct National Democratic Coalition, Chief Ayo Adebanjo,
I don’t think the DSS is antagonsing the acting EFCC chairman as it is only doing its own duty. My own view is that the Presidency should look into the recommendations of the DSS because all along Magu has been accused of several things. He should not just fold his arms, but rather, look into the reasons the DSS and the Senate have refused to confirm him and tell Nigerians if all that has been said about Magu is true or not. It is that simple.
Director General, West African Institute for Financial and Economic Management, Professor Akpan Ekpo
I suspect some kind of bitterness between the DSS and EFCC. I think the president needs to talk to the house band. I will like Magu to be confirmed as the EFCC chairman because we are hearing that he is doing good jobs. I wouldn’t know if something is being hidden because what I know is what we read in national dailies.
I am very sure that there are some form of bitterness between the sister agencies because from what we have been seeing he has been doing a good job and left to me, he needs to be confirmed based on the work he is doing. I will discuss with the house on how to reconcile the matter between the parties.
Lawyer and Consultant, Corporate Governance and Transparency, Mr. Oladele Solanke
We have to look at it from a deeper perspective. You have an APC government in place and the government sponsoring Magu is led by an APC President. Whether you like it or not, Magu has shown courageous conviction about the fight against corruption, which is the mantra and anchor of what this government promised Nigeria.
In fact, this is the defining mark of this government. Again, in the Senate, you have to know that something happened in the Senate in the very beginning against active discipline, decorum and decency when Dr. Bukola Saraki turned his back against the party as to who should be the Senate President.
Also, I appreciate that the politics that was played out at that time was because most of the senators that were there at that time were PDP senators. They all lost power, what they were doing then was a balance of power and that was what played out because they saw Saraki as someone they could use. What bothers me is why the senate will reject Magu twice because of a supposedly DSS report.
I do not have the fact and I want to be careful as a lawyer because I rely on the information I get from the press. If you will ask me, i will tell you that the senate, Bukola Saraki and his caucus are not interested in the fight against corruption. I think it is an opportunity for the president to understand that he had to play politics. He needs to engage them.
The DSS that nailed a report against Magu is an arm of Government, so we will see a very clear case of internal conspiracy and for me, it bothers down to the level and type of governance we have in the country. We also don’t have to underrate the fact that most of them are exgovernors that might fear the shadow of Magu. Take the case of Ndume for instance, why would they suspend him and why for 6 months, that’s a violent castration on the representative of Ndume not to play their roles in their senatorial district. There is no rule like that in the senate and if there is, it should be null and void.
The problem we have with the governance is that we are weak in the political system, the party system is not there. APC, even after telling us that there is change, I believe they can do better. It’s not that there are no places that change has occurred. The people of PDP and APC are not talking about how the people of Nigeria will grow in the legislature, judicial or executive governance, they are not looking at that. This will make some of us to look inwards to find out how we will get to the political position otherwise we will be getting these kind of characters. Am sure the President is learning very fast and i believe if you are not well educated and of course his health too. I would just say there is no thorough executive and legislative examination.
