[Auspicious]

Thanks to Mr. Amaechi for another of his clear, well-written, thought-provoking essays. More grease to your indefatigable elbows. I must state this is my favorite type of essays. Essays that highlight the most glaring of our collective shortcomings - essays that tend to invoke in us the readers, the kind of emotions that could ignite us to demand what is ours - to free ourselves from the strangleholds of the same gang of opportunists (who by the way, come from every nook and cranny of our nation-state) who have held back our progress for so long. Too bad that most of the people who need this kind of message don't have the privilege of internet or the newspapers.

Unlike a few other commentators out there who are quick to shoot EFCC's Nuhu Ribadu down, I will hold my horses for now. I have heard and seen Ribadu talk and I have seen his handiwork so far. He talks with an uncommon passion and he has worked hard to carve a niche for himself so far, at the risk of his life and that of his family. His words are true and on many occassions his comments have ran counter to that of those who employed him to fight the menace of economic crimes in our land. And what more, his position on issues have been more dignifying than his boss'.

In my humble view, Ribadu is a lone man; the aggressive but honest Dog in the midst of a pack of Wolves. The encumberances in his way - the institutionalized interests in his way - are so enormous that he can only bite every once in a while. And in fairness to him, he has managed to bite pretty hard at the entrenched interests out there. He is doing his bit - he is doing the most he can with the most support he gets from those who appointed him. For someone like Nuhu Ribadu to be as efficient as he can be, for him to attain his maximum utility, he would have to have a better boss than Olusegun Obasanjo. No, Ribadu would have to be empowered with alleigance to nobody but the Nigerian people to function at maximum capacity.

But of what good is a man's zeal for probity and accountability, when the rest of his fellow citizens are a bunch of cowards who fail to hold their leaders accountable for their deeds? Of what use is Nuhu Ribadu's passion, when on the one hand, he has to contend with the corrupt leaders like Obasanjo and Atiku while on the other, he has to contend with the near-criminal subservience of his fellow citizens to their irresponsible 'leaders'? Of what use is Ribadu energy and commitment to arresting corruption in our land if the people of places like Oyo, Anambra, Rivers, Delta, Ekiti, Plateau and others fold their arms and look on while the Odilis, Iboris, Adedibus/Akalas, Fayoses, The Uba Clan, Dariye continue to rape them with wanton abandon?

It has almost come to a point where people like Nuhu Ribadu are the strange ones amongst us now! Otherwise, why do we find people like Felix, MrOneNaija and Co. lambasting one of the last Good Men Standing in our land? What can Nuhu Ribadu do? How can ANYONE miss out the point Mr. Ribadu was trying to make in his speech at University of Ibadan, to wit, there is only so much he alone can do when even the people who should be MAD at the Status Quo have resigned to failure in that defeatist way. Why excoriate and insult Mr. Nuhu Ribadu for doing his best when the results, in spite of the little support he gets from us Nigerians, speak for itself? What has MrOneNaija and Company done to ever encourage the likes of Mr. Ribadu amongst us Nigerians, other try to quench the beacon of hope Ribadu represents for some of us?

Someday, somehow, the likes of Ikechukwu Amaechi will find the means and the way to come together and invoke that collective spirit of outrage that is so terribly lacking in our land. I look forward to that day when people like him shall find the will and the way to relocate home and ignite that passion in the hearts and minds of the few Nigerians who have not sold their conscience away or resigned to failure. And who knows, even amongst those who have given up, we might still be able to rekindle the hope we all yarn for. If only the cynics who are blinded by their bias will, for just one milli-second, give those who are passionate enough to risk their comfort for the good of all a chance to effect the change we so desperately need in our society! If only!

We sure are a strange people, Mr. Amaechi.

Auspicious.