by Adamu Yaro

I can however understand Ribadu’s predicament. It is obvious that his political husband has decided to embrace polygamy and is thinking of marrying a new political wife who happens to be a general.

Reading through Ribadu’s statement in response to the presidency’s statement giving a historical account if his hypocrisy it is amusing that the irony of his political instability does not stare him in the face. Ribadu says “It is unfortunate that he (Mr. Abati) stands on crooked crutches of rehashed falsehoods fabricated by corrupt politicians prosecuted by Mallam Nuhu Ribadu”. I am a bit confused here. Isn’t Bola Tinubu one of the “corrupt politicians” Ribadu talks about? Who is today serving Tinubu between Ribadu and Reuben Abati?

Reuben Abati serves Nigeria by working for President Goodluck Jonathan while Nuhu Ribadu serves Bola Tinubu. I will now replay Ribadu’s past words concerning Tinubu. Before, the 2007 Nuhu Ribadu said Bola Tinubu was not fit to hold public office. Today, Nuhu Ribadu has turned to Tinubu’s lap dog.

And then again Ribadu has the effrontery to say that rather than being accused of ingratitude he is the one who can make such a claim “having been betrayed after his selfless service to the nation in the Petroleum Revenue Task Force committee.” What hogwash!

Ribadu is so narcissistic that he is only conscious of himself and has little capacity to remember what others have done for him. Was it not the same Ribadu who confessed in the Petroleum Revenue Task Force committee report that “The data used in this report was presented by various stakeholders who made submissions to the task force in the course of our assignment at various dates which have been disclosed in relevant sections of the report. Due to the time frame of the assignment, some of the data used could not be INDEPENDENTLY VERIFIED and the Task Force recommends that the Government should conduct such necessary verifications and reconciliations.”

Nuhu Ribadu betrayed his incompetence in that his committee was saddled with the task of unravelling what was stolen in the fuel subsidy regime and other petroleum industry related transactions and instead of doing that he signed a report containing what he acknowledged were unverified numbers and expected the president to act on it. Was it not precisely because the president wanted verified figures that he appointed the Committee? Yet, because of his hunger for the media spotlight, Ribadu presented a haphazard report and rejected Steve Oronsanye’s advise to request for more time to do a proper job.

And now Ribadu expects gratitude for doing a shoddy job and refuses to give gratitude to the president who returned him from exile, reversed his dismissal from the police and restored his full rank of Assistant Inspector General of Police with full entitlements. Talk about biting the fingers that fed you.

From his statement, it is clear that Nuhu Ribadu wants to muddy the waters and divert attention from the real issues by insulting Reuben Abati. So in order to force him to address issues, I will attempt to reduce them to two questions;

a. Did you or did you not once accuse former governor of Lagos State, Bola Tinubu, of being a corrupt politician?

b. Did you or did you not turn around to become Bola Tinubu’s lackey and presidential candidate of his choosing and sponsorship?

Nuhu Ribadu has turned out to be a tragic hero, a man in whom the youths of Nigeria once placed so much hope but who has turned out to be, as his former friend El-rufai wrote in his book the Accidental Public Servant, a “typical policeman!”

I can however understand Ribadu’s predicament. It is obvious that his political husband has decided to embrace polygamy and is thinking of marrying a new political wife who happens to be a general. It is understandable that the scorned wife that Ribadu has become will do everything to regain the attention of the political husband. I won’t begrudge Ribadu his attention seeking. He is entitled to that as he is entitled to his opinion. But he is not entitled to the facts. Facts are sacred and the fact is that Ribadu is now the wife of a man he once publicly called a crook!

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Op-ed pieces and contributions are the opinions of the writers only and do not represent the opinions of Y!/YNaija.