We don't need jokers as leaders-- Ribadu

Former Chairman of the Economic and Financial
Crimes Commission, Nuhu Ribadu, on Saturday
said Nigeria was suffering from collapsed
institutions and needed more than mere change
of leadership to survive.
He also said hurdles were placed on his way to
fight corruption when he was appointed as the
pioneer chairman of the anti-graft agency.
Ribadu, who spoke at a mentoring session with
corps members in Abuja, likened Nigeria to a man
"who sows maize grains yet expects to reap
mango fruits."
He said, "Our trouble in this country is principally
the collapse of our institutions. Our potential is
lost in our civic decadence, which stares us in the
face wherever we go. We see the decadence in the
eyes of the policeman flipping through our
particulars; we see the decadence in the eyes of
the university registrar demanding bribes to grant
or facilitate admissions; we see the decadence in
the eyes of every citizen who has lost hope in
Nigeria."
Ribadu, who said he rejected offers from the
Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation,
Afribank, Corporate Affairs Commission, United
Bank for Africa and a big family business to pick-
up a career in the police, maintained that he had
no regrets for his actions as the EFCC boss.
He advised the corps members to be the change
agents the country needed.
Ribadu said, "To inspire change you must become
something different; do something worthy of
emulation, something whose memory even
comforts you no matter what."
"My appointment as chairman of the EFCC, for
instance, was to a turbulent task. I had to follow
the statements of my previously written will to
serve in a country where, there is a lack of
functional institutions to check mismanagement
of public funds and related criminal misconduct.
Trust in public institutions had been demolished
and perpetrators went about wearing their crimes
like badges of honour.
"I was given an appointment to stand in the way
of these celebrated fraudsters, without an office
and funds to launch my operations. But we went
on to form what became a prime anti-corruption
body in the country. Our activities are left for
history and honest critics of political evolution to
gauge and tell of our impact."
Speaking on the theme of the lecture, "Nigeria: A
Generation's Quest for Home," the former
presidential candidate of the defunct Action
Congress of Nigeria, said, "What Nigeria needs to
realise its potential is, unfortunately, not mere
change of leadership."
"We don't need anyone from outer space to come
organise our polity. What we need are ourselves-
our virtues and belief in a collective struggle for
good governance.
"What we need are functional institutions; we
need institutions that pander to the principle of
honesty, that socialise successions of citizens who
will extol this principle. We need leaders for
whom the sufferings of the masses are immediate
concerns, not jokers that insult the yearnings and
honest observations of the electorate."

Sent from my BlackBerry wireless device from MTN