Underneath the great Nigerian saying, “suffering & smiling” is the local interpretation “Eye wey dey cry dey see”. So, we have it, that the same criminals who have stolen recklessly from the Nation are now putting themselves forward for the position of presidency of Nigeria. And they are close.
EFCC picked up Rochas yesterday after a 6-hour hilarious siege that allowed him to make videos begging Nigerians to call somebody. He complained that EFCC were about to break through his “bulletproof doors” and make him late for his PRESIDENTIAL screening. This was comical, maybe they thought it should be.
Rocha is the former 2-time Governor of Imo State who was charged in January 2022 by EFCC. The 17 charges logged at the Federal High Court stated that Rocha and 5 companies stole N2.9b from the public coffers. The charges were filed around the same time he was declaring to run for Presidency. So why was Rochas not told that you cannot contest whilst you have a case pending with the EFCC?
If Buhari is behind this and he sees EFCC’s intervention as a new repumped obstacle to any presidential aspirant in 2023, then it is a good start. This means anyone with an EFCC charge cannot enter the race. It will whittle down the numbers, however I still think many, if not all, would avoid it. How many times have EFCC prevented a political aspirant from the ballot box in recent times? If you are from Edo State you’ll know.
The problem is EFCC, as an enforcement agency, also has its short comings. The agency has been marred by corruption in recent pasts. It is not balanced in terms of who it targets, is not swift just think about this 6-hour stand-off, it lacks follow ups, and always leaves many important questions unanswered. Questions like – how much money did they steal? How much can you recover? What did you do with the recovered money? How did Nigerians benefit from it? etc
As much as many Nigerians will want to hail arresting Rocha’s as a good start, we will not be surprised at all, if Rochas still finds his way to a presidential screening before it’s over, because we know it’s Nigeria. Right now, he is just going through EFCC screening which has become ridiculously NORMAL.