Politics Battle of Words between Former President Obasanjo and Ex-EFCC Boss Waziri

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Former President Olusegun Obasanjo has said the appointment of Mrs. Farida Waziri as the chairman of the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission, EFCC slowed down the fight against corruption in the country.

Obasanjo, in an exclusive interview he granted Zero Tolerance, a magazine published by the EFCC, said Waziri was a wrong successor to Mallam Nuhu Ribadu, the pioneer chairman of the anti-graft agency.

According to PUNCH, Obasanjo said, “I know that the woman they brought in to replace Ribadu was not the right person for that job because I understood that one of those who head-hunted her was Ibori. If Ibori, who is now in a UK (United Kingdom) prison for fraud, head-hunts somebody who will fight corruption in Nigeria, then you can understand what happened.”

To butress his argument that Waziri was a wrong person for the job, he challenged the publication to “go and look at her track record.”

“Go and look at the condition or the qualification; go and look at the type of interaction that anybody holding that job will have with a similar organisation elsewhere; did Waziri have that type. What connection did she have with the FBI, what relationship did she have with Metropolitan Police in London. It’s not a picnic,”Obasanjo added.

“When I was there, the EFCC and ICPC worked tirelessly and we moved this country from the corruption perception index being number two from the lowest to number 45 from the lowest. We should have graduated from being number 45 to being number 50 to being number 60, to being number 100. But we are not doing that, rather we have started sliding down.”

The former President flayed the manner Ribadu was removed from office, saying he cautioned the late President Umaru Yar’Adua against his removal.

Obasanjo said if given the opportunity again, “I will reappoint Mallam Ribadu and I will not dismiss him the way he was dismissed from the EFCC.”

In a separate interview with Zero Tolerance, Waziri denied that Ibori supported her appointment as the EFCC chairman.

She said, “I never knew him. I never knew James Ibori.

“Let me ask you, if I was in league with Ibori and was not sincerely pursuing him, would he have run, gone out of this country to Dubai in the United Arab Emirates?

“It is all lies of the enemies. By the time I write my book, the truth will prevail. I never knew Ibori; look I believe what is worth doing at all is worth doing well. I don’t believe in half measures. By my training and upbringing, I can never betray my country for anyone.”

Justifying her appointment, Waziri said she secured the first conviction in the history of the EFCC.

“N190bn, one single recovery from one person that went to jail was during Farida Waziri. That is why it is good to have changes in an organisation”, she added.

Waziri faulted the manner she was sacked by the Goodluck Jonathan administration despite committing more than 30 years to serving the nation.

She said she learnt of her removal in November 2011 in the news media and stated that she did not deserve the humiliation since she had not been found wanting for any misdemeanour.

“If you are removed like that, it has a tendency to scare some people. I wasn’t bothered that I left because my philosophy of life is simple, ‘what has a beginning has an end,’’ Waziri said.
 
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