By Gabriel Atumeyi
A Civil Society Organization, Citizens Awareness Against Corruption And Social Vices Initiative (CAACASVI) has congratulated the newly appointed chairman of the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC) on his confirmation by the Senate.
365Daily reports how Abdulrasheed Bawa was on Wednesday, February 24 confirmed by the Senate as the substantive chairman of the EFCC.
CAACASVI said from his antecedent, Abdulrasheed Bawa is a man capable of re-engineering the agency.
The group’s convener, Olumuyiwa Olende disclosed this in a statement on Thursday in Abuja. He said age should not always be the consideration when performance and effective service delivery are the expectations.
Olende admonished the new EFCC chairman to justify the trust placed on him by the President and the youth constituency.
The statement reads: “As people will say , age is just a number, as disrespectful as it may sound, there is a sense if we look at the statement from religious angle. Our lord Jesus Christ died at the age 36 yet he achieved being a saviour. Prophet Mohammed (SAW) was not the oldest in his time, yet he is a redeemer.
“Without making comparison between them and the person of Abdulrasheed Bawa, we believe there is a great lesson to be learnt that when given a mandate or responsibility ahead of older people, we must look beyond age and define what we want to achieve in the role base on our motive and expertise.
“There is no doubt that Abdulrasheed Bawa the new Executive Chairman of Economic and financial Crimes Commission is the best man for the job and we in the vanguard of Anti- Corruption therefore wish to use this opportunity to congratulate him, President Muhammadu Buhari (GCFR) who we term as the father of Anti- Corruption not only in Nigeria but in Africa as a whole, we congratulate the youths and Nigerians for this appointment and hereby solicit for support for the new EFCC Chairman from all stakeholders, civil society organisations, judiciary, Nigerian Bar Association, the media and indeed all Nigerians as we believe the fight against corruption is not that of the chairman alone nor the anti graft agencies but a collective effort of all Nigerians if our country must achieve her potentials.
“Also the first task the new chairman should embark on if he must succeed is internal restructuring of the commission to rid it of those with divided loyalty and that can only be done by wielding out everybody on secondment back to their parent agencies.
“We admonish the new Chairman to do all within his God given power not to abandon the struggle for which he is known for that made the President to repose confidence in him and appoint to this office regardless his age.
“We appreciate the Senate of the federal republic of Nigeria for doing the needful by speedily confirming the nominee.
“The new chairman must be ready to step on toes if he must succeed in his new role and must also be ready for war against the commission and his person, not necessarily because he is bad, but because men who do good have no shortage of enemies.
“The chairman must know that the war against corruption is the most dangerous fight in the world as you wrestle against organised financial crime that is the greatest enterprise of unpatriotic citizens, the statement concluded.