President Muhammadu Buhari has been enjoined to work with stakeholders so that the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC), could become active once again.
Former President Olusegun Obasanjo, gave the advice on Saturday, during his 79th birthday celebration, held at Olusegun Obasanjo Presidential Library (OOPL), Abeokuta, the Ogun State capital.
A visibly not happy Obasanjo reflected on the activities of the anti-graft agency during his regime, concluding that the same EFCC has now become “a toothless bulldog”.
He noted that the pioneer chairman of EFCC, Nuhu Ribadu, made the agency vibrant, so much so that the saying then was ‘the fear of Ribadu is the beginning of wisdom’.
According to him, “Honestly, when Nuhu was handling EFCC, he handled it in such a way that people coined the saying that ‘the fear of Nuhu Ribadu is the beginning of wisdom’ and then the question you will ask is, how did we go down? How did we lose that? “Nuhu Ribadu is still here, he’s still alive.
“The institution we started together is still there, but what made the institution to become a toothless bulldog? What? And that’s the matter we have to keep looking at, so that we don’t take two steps forward, one step aside and three steps back.”
On tackling terrorism, Obasanjo, had this to say, “One of the things we now have to take seriously is technology because technology impacts on our daily life; it’s built in our homes; it’s in our pocket, and if there are those who want to do anything to make life unbearable for us in terms of security, then we must also use technology as the antidote and the means by which we can ward off what they may want to do against us”.
“I summarize that the solution lies in six areas: At home, the community, the church/mosque, the school/college, the state-local, state and federal government – and the international community. At each of these, we should do things and not leave undone what we should do”.
