EFCC, you decorated Ekweremadu your ambassador

What is wrong in the Deputy Senate President, Ike Ekweremadu, being an anti-corruption ambassador for the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC)?
What is this shenanigan over whether he was decorated with a badge and presented with a plaque from the EFCC portraying him as one?
If the Commission has bestowed such a title on some Nigerians, who says Ekweremadu is not qualified, and why is the EFCC chaired by Ibrahim Magu out to humiliate him?
And what qualities are recipients of the title expected to have before they can be chosen?
These questions have been agitating my mind since Wednesday, April 20 when I read the rebuttal from the EFCC dissociating itself from the award given in public glare in the office of Ekweremadu at the National Assembly (NASS) on Tuesday, April 19 by senior EFCC officials, led by its NASS Liaison Officer, Suleiman Bakari.
Ekweremadu’s comments during the decoration showed that there was no way newspapers would have concocted what he did not say if there was no meeting with the EFCC officials in the first place.
I have seen the photograph of the meeting. And pictures do not lie, they say.
Other Nigerians, particularly media practitioners, have also seen the photograph where EFCC officials were decorating Ekweremadu with their badge after handing over their plaque to him as Anti-Corruption Ambassador.
Who then is deceiving who and for what purpose?
I just wonder why the EFCC has set out to smear itself over reasons their minders are not disclosing to the public.
According to reports, during the meeting Ekweremadu called for the establishment of Special Anti-Corruption Courts to reduce the burden on regular courts and fast-track the trial of corruption cases.
He said: “I have been an advocate of special courts for the trial of corruption cases and I believe that other countries, which have enacted laws establishing such, are not fools because there are benefits to be derived therefrom.
“The idea is to expedite trial to make sure that those who are involved in corruption matters will have their day in court.
“When we have special courts, just as we have the National Industrial Court, such courts will do better than they are doing now.
“The establishment of special courts is not just something that will be done by an Act of the National Assembly. We have to amend the Constitution to bring it about under Section 6, for the purpose of trying corruption cases.”
Ekweremadu also reportedly cautioned the EFCC to ensure that in fighting corruption, it must respect the rule of law and ensure that the provisions of the Constitution on fair hearing and treatment of an accused are respected.
He promised to live up to the trust reposed in him by the EFCC, adding that the NASS would do everything within its power to ensure that bills strengthening the fight against corruption are speedily attended to.
Bakari said: “It is therefore my honour, your excellency, to on behalf of my acting Chairman, Ibrahim Mustafa Magu, and the entire management and staff of the EFCC, decorate you as an Anti-Corruption Ambassador and formally present this frame, as a token of our appreciation to your person and office, and as a symbol of institutional partnership between the EFCC and the National Assembly.”
But in a twist, the EFCC the next day disowned Ekweremadu saying it did not authorise Bakari to confer the title on him or any other politician.
EFCC spokesman, Wilson Uwujaren, said Bakari acted on his own, claiming the Commission does not give awards.
Wilson denied media reports on April 20 claiming that the EFCC sent Bakari to decorate Ekweremadu as Anti-Corruption Ambassador.
He added: “The EFCC totally dissociates itself from the purported action of Sulaiman Bakari as he acted entirely on his own.
“He clearly acted outside his brief as a liaison officer as the management of the Commission at no time mandated him to decorate Ekweremadu or any officer of the National Assembly as Anti-Corruption Ambassador.
“The statutory mandate of the EFCC is the investigation and prosecution of all economic and financial crimes cases, which does not include the decoration of individuals as Anti-Corruption Ambassadors.
“The Commission is not in the habit of awarding titles to individuals. And those enamoured of titles know the quarters to approach for such honours, not the EFCC. Members of the public and stakeholders in the fight against corruption are enjoined to disregard the so-called decoration.”
Uwujaren’s posturing was as baffling to discerning minds, as it was to Anichukwu, who riposted “to put it on record” that Bakari and his team applied for and subsequently paid a courtesy call on Ekweremadu in his office on April 19.
Anichukwu insisted that “Bakari, among other issues he raised, solicited the support of the Senate and National Assembly towards the anti-corruption crusade of the present administration, and even presented a frame with a bold picture of President Muhammadu Buhari, bearing the inscription: ‘If we don’t kill corruption, corruption will kill Nigeria’.
“Bakari also, on behalf of the acting chairman, management, and staff of the EFCC decorated Ekweremadu as an Anti-Corruption Ambassador of the EFCC ….
“It is also a fact that the visit and decoration [were] captured in both pictures and video.
“As for the purported claim by [Uwujaren] that the agency has never and could not have decorated anybody as an Anti-Corruption Ambassador … we wish to refer him to December 7, 2007, when the Nuhu Ribadu-led EFCC conferred the Role Model Award in the Fight Against Corruption on certain persons, including a former President of the Senate, a taxi driver, and a former Justice of the Federal High Court at the Musa Yar’Adua Centre, Abuja ….
“We leave the rest to discerning members of the public to read between the lines and make their own judgments….”
Uwujaren and his boss, Magu, have done their own, being also accountable to superior authorities. Bakari would not have single-handedly initiated a letter to pay a courtesy visit to Ekweremadu without approval from the EFCC topmost hierarchy.
However, Nigerians are not ignorant of the way things work in a plural society like ours where ethnic, religious and political considerations are placed far above the interest of the people. This is one of such cases.
If feelers getting to us are anything to go by, Magu was responding to queries from his employers in Aso Rock and All Progressives Congress (APC) chieftains who were peeved by the choice of Ekweremadu, an opposition party politician.
I do not want to believe it is because Ekweremadu is Igbo or because he has sympathy for Senate President, Bukola Saraki, who is facing corruption charges.
But the truth is that playing politics with everything cannot take our country anywhere, no matter how loud we shout change.
Rather than dance naked in public, Magu should give reasons to justify his choice of Ekweremadu except Magu is saying he does not know what he is doing.