Reno Omokri has called on President Buhari to sack the acting president of EFCC, Ibrahim Magu, for wearing his re-election campaign material despite being a civil servant.
Yesterday, Magu was on Channels TV for an interview and he wore a lapel promoting President Buhari's re-election. Reno says it is against the civil service act for a civil servant to be political in his duty. Read his article below
President Buhari Should Sack Ibrahim Magu In Order to Restore Confidence in the Neutrality of Nigeria’s Civil Service and Security Agencies
On the morning of Tuesday May 15, 2018, Nigerians woke up to the strange sight of the acting Chairman of the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission, EFCC, giving an interview on ‘Sunrise Daily’, a breakfast TV show on Channels Television, wearing a lapel pin promoting the re-election of President Muhammadu Buhari.
Not since the dark days of General Sani Abacha have Nigerians seen this type of disturbing behaviour.
The action by Ibrahim Magu, went against the ethics and principles of the Nigerian civil service as well as the service rules for military and police personnel.
Nigerian Civil servants are mandated by law to be politically neutral in order that all civil servants can render unbiased and loyal service to any government that comes to power legitimately, irrespective of the political party that produced such a government.
Furthermore, In a resolution adopted by the United Nations General Assembly regarding the International Code of Conduct for Public Officials, for which Nigeria is a signatory and bound by, the UN stated in the 11th principle that: “the political or other activity of public officials outside the scope of their office shall, in accordance with laws and administrative policies, not be such as to impair public confidence in the impartial performance of their functions and duties”.
That being the case, how can President Muhammadu Buhari, who swore on the Quran to abide by the Constitution of Nigeria which produced our civil service, stand idly by while his political appointee brazenly and with impunity goes against domestic and international law as well as the principles of natural justice?
The Economic and Financial Crimes Commission, is meant to be a neutral enforcer of Nigeria’s laws on economic and Financial Crimes, but when the head of the body brazenly shows his partiality, how can those laws be applied impartially? How can an open sympathizer of the All Progressive Congress be expected to conduct a fair and balance war on corruption?
Recently, the Buhari led administration released a so called ‘looters list’ that exclusively contained names of prominent opposition members. Not one All Progressive Congress member was included on that list despite glaring cases of corruption against them.
At that time, I raised a red flag and released my own looters list of All Progressive Congress members.
Now, with Chairman Magu’s behaviour, I am vindicated. The EFCC is fighting a war on the opposition and not a war on corruption.
On March 24, 2018, a former Chief of Army Staff, Lieutenant General Theophilus Yakubu Danjuma (rtd) said the security services “are not neutral”. The next day, the Buhari administration attacked him in a most disrespectful manner. But with Ibrahim Magu’s action of wearing President Buhari’s re-election lapel pin, has Danjuma not been vindicated?
Do Nigerians and the international community now believe me when I say that the EFCC under Buhari is nothing more than the armed wing of the APC? It is the Gestapo of the Presidency.
It is for this same reason why the Egmont Group suspended Nigeria because the EFCC under Magu had been using financial intelligence received from the group to blackmail opposition elements.
Egmont said it suspend Nigeria “following repeated failures on the part of the FIU, (Nigeria) to address concerns regarding the protection of confidential information.”
No wonder Nigeria has made its worse retrogression in Transparency International’s Corruption Perception Index, moving 12 places backward from where the Jonathan administration left us, from 136, to 148. Nigeria is now more corrupt today under Buhari than it was under the previous Jonathan administration.
I hereby call on President Muhammadu Buhari to restore faith in Nigeria’s civil service and its security and military forces by immediately replacing Ibrahim Magu as the acting Chairman of the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission and imposing punitive measures on him to deter other civil servants with a similar streak.
And if President Muhammadu Buhari fails to discipline Ibrahim Magu, as is expected, I call on the National Assembly, in keeping with the doctrine of checks and balances, not to confirm Mr. Magu as substantive Chairman of the EFCC and refuse to provide budgetary provision for the agency while he remains as acting chairman.
Finally, I call on the international community to take note of the recession of democracy in Nigeria because of the actions and inactions of the Buhari administration.
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