Magules Against Corruption

Th e title of this piece reminded me of a gripping Roman movie starring Alan Steel entitled “Hercules Against Rome”. I watched the movie, released in 1964, in the late 70s. So, I had to go to the internet to refresh. For a digression, I loved Roman movies right from my childhood. Among my favourite actors were Steve Reeves, Mark Forest and Dan Vadis. Th ese were massively built muscle men that would make Arnold Schwarzenegger look like a pygmy.

But the story lines of most of the movies have been lost in the labyrinth of age. I was also a slave to cowboy movies made popular in my early days by incredible sharp shooters like John Wayne, Roy Roger, Franco Nero of the “Django” fame, and George Hilton who starred in “Mi Chiamano Alleluia (Th ey Call Me Hallelujah)”.

I can never forget Clint Eastwood of “Th e Good, the Bad and the Ugly” fame. Th en, the Chinese joined the fray in the early 70s, throwing up screamer kung-fu legends like the diminutive Bruce Lee who was famous for his epic movies: “Fists of Fury” and “Enter the Dragon”. Wang Yu came to marvel kung-fu lovers with “One Armed Swordsman” and Li Chin-Kun of the “Th under Kick” fame. I did not particularly enjoy the Indian movies because of their boring choreographic dance and songs which I found too irritating, having been pampered with action movies.

I must not forget to tell you that there was no television when I was growing up. So, the public cinema halls provided the avenues to watch those fantastic movies.

In “Hercules Against Rome”, the story is told of a childhood friend of Hercules who enlisted him to protect the Roman Emperor Gordiano who was in danger from his own mutinous Praetorian Guards. By the time he arrived at Italy, the guards had already murdered the emperor. Nevertheless, Hercules undertook to reverse the situation and helped a Roman general, Lucio Trajano Decio, to seize power.

Ibrahim Magu, Nigeria’s modern-day Hercules, henceforth referred to as Magules (my coinage) in this piece, has been in the eye of the storm lately in a bid to confi rm him as the chairman of the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC). Magules has been battling against the monster called Corruption, standing on one leg.

Th e Senate which is required to confi rm him for the job has denied him the second leg. No one fi ghts well on one leg. But Magules is a fi ghter. If he could fi ght this far and so well with one leg, you can imagine what a tsunami he would constitute if he has his second leg fi rmly on the ground. Th erefore, the Senate, which is harbouring about 20 of its exgovernor-members undergoing everlasting investigations or trials in various courts for corruption, is not expected to arm him with a second leg.

For, while fi ghting on one leg, he got the former acting governor of Adamawa state, James Ngilari, convicted. It is said that when your neighbour’s beard is on fi re, you should start pouring water on your own. Ngilari typifi es the burning beard and stopping Magules amounts to the “sinators” pouring water on their own beards. See? Th e anti-climax of the rejection of Magules took place last week when the Presidency re-presented him for confi rmation. His fi rst appearance was on December 15, last year, while President Muhammadu Buhari was on medical trip to London.

Exactly one month later, the President himself, upon returning from his 50-day trip, sent Magules back to the Lions’ den. Again, the Lions bared their fangs, citing a report by the Department of State Services (DSS) that declared him unfi t for the job. Curiously, there was another report emanating from the same source giving Magules a clean bill of fi tness for the job, thus painting the picture of a divided Presidency. Another billion naira question (people now steal in billions) is, “Why was the DSS sending its reports directly to the Senate?” Ideally, before any presidential nominee is sent to the Senate for confi rmation, the person must have undergone security checks by the DSS and if found to be clean, he or she is then dispatched to the Senate for confi rmation.

Is the DSS independent of the Presidency? And why is the President acting like an aging Lion whose roar now sounds like a whimper? Honestly speaking, this is not the Buhari I have been backing all these years. He is no longer the demigod who would say “yes” and no one dares to say “no”. Is our dear President now a body without a soul… the soul being the departed stonefaced Tunde Idiagbon with whom he ruled with an iron fi st in his military days? Granted that this is democracy where he can’t easily have his way with the National Assembly even though his party, the All Progressives Congress, boasts of more gladiators in the two Chambers, why are his aides defying him? Is the tail now wagging the dog?

I never knew that any cabal could breathe near Buhari… just as they could not dare ex-president Olusegun Obasanjo. Cabalisation of the Villa began with the late Umaru Musa Yar’Adua which his successor, Dr. Goodluck Jonathan, inherited. Magules is accused of being a pawn in the hands of his paymasters.

Th is is unfortunate if it is true. But overall, he is delivering on his mandate given the Nigerian factor. He is up against Corruption personifi ed by the big thieves he is chasing around the place like Christmas chickens. Some people have argued that rather than being diplomatic in his approach by chasing the eagles away before counting the chicks, he has chosen to be (tactlessly) combative. In other words, he should have simmered down and tagged along with the crooks until he gets his confi rmation.

When the late sage, Papa Awo, swore to ban tea drinking by civil servants if he became the president in the build-up to the Second Republic in 1979, they saw to it that he never got to the Ribadu Road State House in Lagos. Many argued that he should have kept the tea threat to himself until the appropriate time.

Tea sipping in the offi ce was a bigman’s syndrome which the public servants of old were not willing to be cured of! It was not very clear at the time of writing whether Magules would remain in the offi ce fi ghting the multi-headed Demon on one leg or President Buhari would bow to the “conspiracy” between the DSS and the Senate and supplant the award-winning Magules with someone else.

If he bows, his anticorruption rating would suff er a plunge. And as it is said, the devil you know is better than an unknown angel. Th is is what the conspirators should be wary of. But then, do you think an angel would brook corruption? Th at is a trillion naira poser.

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