Confirm Magu by executive fiat, Mr President

By Aisha Umar Yufuf

To ordinary Nigerians, the Senate’s position is suspect, to say the least. This is because numerous senators, including their leadership, have incriminating files at the EFCC. The perception is that the Senate is afraid to confirm him because if it does so it will be giving him the green light to pursue all their cases to their logical conclusion; a situation which will see most of them being prosecuted and even jailed.

By now, it’s become clear to most discerning Nigerians, that the forces against Ibrahim Mustapha Magu are enemies of our country. How else can one explain the way some powerful elements are totally up-in-arms against his confirmation as the Chairman of Nigeria’s leading anti-corruption agency?

For long we have known that some dishonest, unpatriotic, unscrupulous and utterly selfish people, have been robbing our dear nation blind, and in broad daylight, but we had no way of nailing them. Suddenly, and largely due to the efforts of Magu and some of his predecessors at the EFCC, these people began to feel the heat and were getting arrested, while looted monies were being recovered.

In any other part of the world, where people care enough about their common wealth and what it’s being used for, public officials like Ibrahim Magu would be considered heroes, who are out to save the economy. But here in Nigeria, where corruption has grown so strong it is putting anti-corruption on trial, a man like Magu is being vilified, so the forces of evil can prevail.

It is now on record that the senate of the federal Republic had rejected his confirmation twice, on two different occasions. Their charge against him was that he had integrity problems, based on reports handed to them by the Department of State Security, DSS. To them therefore, a man like Magu is not fit to head the EFCC.

To ordinary Nigerians, the Senate’s position is suspect, to say the least. This is because numerous senators, including their leadership, have incriminating files at the EFCC. The perception is that the Senate is afraid to confirm him because if it does so it will be giving him the green light to pursue all their cases to their logical conclusion; a situation which will see most of them being prosecuted and even jailed.

In their defence, the senators are spreading a conspiracy theory that, it is indeed the executive branch, that does not want Magu to remain at the EFCC. They claim that that was why it kept sending them the reports of the DSS without doing anything about it.

But after hearing what Vice President Yemi Osinbajo said, about their plans to re-present Ibrahim Magu’s name to the senate, one knows for sure that this senate-sponsored conspiracy theory has no basis in reality.

However, the best way to convince Nigerians that President Buhari and indeed Professor Osinbajo are both very happy with Magu’s work and are solidly behind him will be for them to have him confirmed by executive fiat.

The constitution, according to the Vice President, who happens to be a professor of law, provides for the president to appoint heads of government agencies like the EFCC, without recourse to the National Assembly. The time to exercise this right is now.

If there are indeed elements in the executive are who are also against Magu, we know for sure that the President and his Vice are not among them.

For this reason, President Buhari should do the right thing by making Magu the substantive Chairman of the EFCC. Again, according to VP Osinbajo, the President was totally satisfied with what Magu said in his defence, when he refuted the DSS report.

For now this is the only thing that will appease ordinary Nigerians who see an attempt by powerful and corrupt Nigerians to cripple the anti-corruption crusade by removing the chief crusader. We have all witnessed the huge amounts of money being recovered and high-ranking public officers, as well as generals being named in connection with theft of our public funds; and we are happy with that. The fact that such big shots are daily sweating it out at EFCC offices, writing statements and confessing to pen robbery is more than gratifying to the ordinary Nigerian. The President should just crown our joy by confirming the man who is making all this possible, through executive fiat.