The persecution of Ibrahim Magu, the suspended chairman of Economic and Financial Crime Commission appears to have confirmed the fact that Nigeria does not really worth dying for in any respect.
Magu is not a saint and may likely be guilty of all the allegations against him but the treatment meted on him in the process of trying to prove the justification of his offences does not portray Nigeria in a good light.
Take it or leave it, Magu had served the country in his capacity and has recovered some stolen money which is currently being used to augment the country's financial strength.
He has used his investigative prowess to expose some hidden properties procured with stolen money by politicians which are now confiscated by court and used for the benefit of the Nation.
Some are even being used as isolation centres in support of the fight against the current ravaging pandemic.
Just like every Nigerian who have served the country usually leave the office with some questionable attributes, one should not expect the embattled antigraft agency chairman to be different.
But the federal government is expected to be civil and responsible in the way it carries out the plan treat his shortcomings.
Magu, according to report was abruptly stopped by the DSS on the highway in Abuja which momentarily led to commotion between his security details and the DSS officials.
In the midst of confusion, the EFCC boss reportedly asked them if they wanted to arrest him but they said no that they only wanted to invite him to their office for some questioning.
In a sane society, the likes of Magu would have deserved some regards and if he must be arrested, it is expected that a senior officer who has the official authority to stand down his own security details would lead the team.
From the available information, it was gathered that the boys who blocked Magu's convoy on the highway and forcefully arrested him are junior officers to his own officers. This is a height of humiliation to someone who had risked his life to serve the country for more than two years.
Out of about ten allegations against the former EFCC boss, the most emphasised one that eventually nailed him was his insurbordination to the Minister of Justice and Attorney general, Abubakar Mallami.
Since the creation of the agency in 2003 by former president Olusegun Obasanjo, EFCC Chairmen have always been a subject of humiliation whenever it is time to discharge them after they must have injected their services in the hunt for public thieves.
Mallam Nuhu Ribadu was the first to be sacrificed as a lamb in the Porter's house. After several success stories recorded by Ribadu by tracking down high profile Nigerians with provable corruption allegation, Ribadu ran into trouble with Andoaka, the minister of justice and Attorney general of the Federation.
Andoaka was believed to be a close ally to the former governor of Delta State, James Ibori who was already in EFCC cooler. Ribadu was later witch-hunted from the office and forcefully given a matching order to proceed to a compulsory study leave at Kuru, Jos.
At his graduation ceremony in the school, he was again humiliated in the public with an attempt to get him arrested simply because he was not wearing his uniform.
In 2008, a female investigative police officer, Farida Waziri took over the helm of affairs and momentarily revived the lost hope in the antigraft agency.
But not too long into her reign, different allegation of her involvement with public looters began to filter into the public.
She was reported to have been a stoogie for the corrupt present and past governors as at then which consequently eroded whatever public and professional integrity she might have paraded before ascending the throne. She was later booted out of office in 2011.
With Waziri out of the way, Ibrahim Lamorde was considered a better choice to replace her. Until then, Lamorde was the chief operation officer under Ribadu with rousing accademic and professional credentials.
But Larmode had a soiled hand with corruption. He had a link with fraud allegations which eventually crushed his reputation and got him into trouble with authority. He was humiliated out of office like his other predecessors.
His travail paved way for the incoming of Ibrahim Magu as the acting Chairman for two years. And at the end, Magu suffered the same fate with his predecessors.
Magu's treatment has put a question mark on the sincerety of war against corruption by the government of Nigeria.
For a man who has been in the forefront of rewriting the battered image of the country in the international community as far as corruption is concerned, he obviously deserves a better way of relieving him of his job.
In all of this, it will not be out of place to conclude that Mallami like other former minister of justice in Nigeria, singlehandedly killed and buried Magu as EFCC acting chairman.
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