by Femi Adesina

Did our futurologists miss it in their crystal balls? Or were they as blind as bats in the daytime? How come they never told us that a Lagos Boy would pass through Kirikiri prison this year? Yes, perhaps the greatest ripple in the political waters this year so far is Monday’s conviction of former naval officer and top gun of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP), Chief Olabode George.

For 15 months, the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC) had prosecuted George and five other members of the board he chaired, which ran the Nigerian Ports Authority (NPA) from 2001 to 2003.

They had been accused of abuse of office, contracts inflation, disobedience to constituted authority, contracts splitting, conspiracy to commit crime, among others. And on Monday, Justice Olubunmi Oyewole of the Lagos High Court handed them a jail term of 28 years each, but they would only spend two-and-a-half years each in prison, as the convictions are to run concurrently.

The nation, and indeed the world, had waited rather impatiently for what is generally called a ‘high profile’ conviction from the EFCC, particularly since Mrs Farida Waziri took over as chairman in June last year. Former Edo State governor, Chief Lucky Igbinedion had been convicted for corruption, with a fine option that was described as not more than a massage (not even a slap) on the wrist. Thirteen Filipinos were also convicted for economic crime in a landmark case, the Vaswani Brothers had got themselves deported once again for economic crimes, billions of naira had been recovered from convicted fraudsters, yet what Hilary Clinton told us in her recent visit here was that the EFCC had “fallen off” in the last two years.

Now that the EFCC has prosecuted Bode George and others to a logical conclusion, I like that kind of falling off. If this is what it means for an anti-crime agency to fall off, I surely like it, and want more of such. Let the EFCC “fall off,” but let it get more big shots to answer for their crimes, and I don’t care what Hilary Clinton and other cynics say. Or do you?

The grip on Bode George’s jugular brings up a number of issues. One is that sacred cows too can eventually fall to the knackers. They can be led like sheep to the slaughter, dumb before the shearers. All we need is a dispassionate commitment to what is right, no matter whose ox is gored.

I remember how it all began. Chief Bode George was the Deputy National Chairman (South) of the rampaging PDP. If anybody had a sense of invincibility, it was George. Was he not one of the henchmen of the emperor, Olusegun Obasanjo? Was he not the one who led the tsunami that saw the PDP overrunning the entire South-West, except Lagos? They ran the country like a fiefdom, a personal estate, and their word was law. Under the Obasanjo regime, chairman of the EFCC, Mallam Nuhu Ribadu, had personally investigated the contract bazaar at the NPA. His report indicted Bode George, but Obasanjo threw the report back in Ribadu’s face. The then EFCC boss kept quiet. His mandate was to hound enemies of the regime, not allies, and once he was told to shut up on Bode George, he played the obedient servant to the hilt.

In August last year, just two months after assuming office, Mrs Waziri pulled George in. I remember the man had been abroad, and rumours were rife that his arrest was imminent. When he landed at the airport, Bode George was all puff and bluster, telling the media that he had nothing to fear. Now, just 15 months later, he has every reason to fear. The wind has blown, and we have seen the chicken’s rump.

Ribadu has hailed George’s conviction, saying the law was at last catching up with the bad guys. From his Oxford University, United Kingdom base, he said it was “a measure of the shamelessness of our elites and the institutions that fuel their values that Chief George would be awarded national honour in our country, and that he could later sue some newspapers for libel on account of the damming indictment report I prepared against him. Chief George’s subsequent prosecution is evidence that ultimately, the law catches up with the bad guys.”

Very well said. Like I always maintain, Nuhu Ribadu did his level best in the fight against corruption in Nigeria. But his term was by no means perfect. He is not the paragon that some people try to make of him. Just like every one of us, he had weaknesses. He indicted George in a report in 2005. What then happened? Why didn’t the case go to court till Farida Waziri exhumed it in August, 2008? And Ribadu was in office till December 2007. Obasanjo left office in May of that year, yet he never revisited the indictment he gave in 2005. The truth is that under Ribadu, Bode George would never have seen the door of a courtroom, not to talk of standing inside the dock. He was a sacred cow, he was Obasanjo’s man, and it was outside Ribadu’s brief to touch the untouchables under Obasanjo.

I have written before that I have more confidence in the integrity of the cases filed before the courts by Farida Waziri. She seems more sedate, painstaking and thorough than Ribadu, who preferred the swashbuckling, headline-grabbing approach. Yet, this woman and the agency she leads have been the object of virulent campaign of calumny round the world, championed by Ribadu and his loyalists who thought the EFCC chairmanship was a traditional title that lasts for life. Never think nobody else can do a job you have done appreciably like Ribadu did at EFCC. Never like Elijah, think you are the only true prophet of God left, because there are many thousands others, who have never bowed their knees to Baal.

Bode George’s conviction is glaring evidence once again that nothing lasts forever. And what goes round comes round. You lie down with dogs, you get up with fleas. The only thing permanent in this world is change. Bode George in Kirikiri? It’s like a bad dream, nay, nightmare. It could never have happened when Obasanjo and Ribadu held sway. But a Pharaoh would always come, who does not know Joseph. More than anything else, this conviction has reinforced the rule of law mantra of the Umaru Yar’Adua administration. It is no mere platitude. Remember that Bode George coordinated Yar’Adua’s campaign, yet the law is the law. The president could have intervened, and the man would never have been arrested in the first place, not to talk of ever standing trial and getting convicted. At least, this is something good from a leader we have called a chronic foot dragger, a slowcoach, and many other names. Yes, he is all that and more, but he has at least respected the law and its processes.

We must equally commend Justice Olubunmi Oyewole of the Lagos High Court, who got this case concluded in 15 months, and who delivered judgment without fear or favour. He could have allowed frivolous injunctions upon injunctions, which would see the case drag for many years, till everyone loses interest. One hopes other judges handling corruption cases can take a cue.

Again, did you ever see Bode George in manacles while the case lasted? Did you see him dragged on the floor like they did to Tafa Balogun? Did you see him in handcuffs like they did to DSP Alamieyesigha, Abubakar Audu, and some others? There is a difference between playing to the gallery for the sake of temporal applause, for the acclaim of the international community, and doing things decently, in tune with what obtains in the rest of the civilised world. I pray we never return to the era characterised largely by sound and fury, signifying nothing.

Under the Babangida regime, Bode George, then a Navy Captain, was military governor of Ondo State. When he finished his tour of duty, a period not considered outstanding, he was asked what he would be remembered for. Jocularly, he said: “The people would remember that a Lagos Boy once passed through this state.”

George’s lawyers and the PDP have indicated that the verdict of the High Court would be appealed. Fine, it’s their right. Bode George may either get discharged, or the court can affirm the ruling of the lower court. But in the interim, one thing is clear: A Lagos Boy is now passing through Kirikiri prison.