A word for Bawa

The surname of innocent-looking chair of the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC), Abdulrasheed Bawa sounds like baawa, the linguistic code of agreement among the Egba stock of Ogun State. But Bawa is from Jega in Kebbi State, mostly dominated by Hausa and Fulani ethnic groupings and if performance perception question is thrown among Nigerians today, after his one year in office, he is not likely to get a baawa (concurrence). Opinions are expectedly divided about him, but it is largely about how he got the job and under whose influence he is operating.

After his meeting with journalists in Lagos on Monday to give a report card and use the media feedback, as a peep into his job record with the people, yours truly ran into someone who happens to know his not-too-educated but very wealthy uncle, who had his (the uncle) huge investment in an African country somehow grounded due to some foreign relations issue. I referenced this story to show the person knows the family well. This person is also too sure Bawa and the Attorney General of the Federation, Abubakar Malami, SAN, who supervises the EFCC and allegedly got Bawa the job, share consanguinity. He alleged they are first cousins.

Well, I don’t see a big deal in the revelation, even if true. Yoruba will say, you can help someone get a job, but you won’t help him do it. The snag here is that the person who allegedly helped him to get the job is also being accused of not allowing him to do it, the way it should be done, as unto God and not man. As strong as the suspicion is, as long as there is no verifiable evidence to show that Malami is holding the hand of his “younger brother”, to do the needful on the seat he currently occupies, the suspicion will remain in the realm of rumours and mere assumptions.

Performance-wise, Bawa should and will get a strong “C” here. Bawa and his handlers, however, wanted the Nigerian public to see its next hero in him, pointing at the massive fund recovery to public purse and unprecedented conviction of criminals, particularly the Yahoo Yahoo boys. Well, maybe, he would get an upgrade to “B” or even “B+”, if he can move beyond the “boys” to those identified as “Yahoo Yahoo Governors” by the voluble Ondo State governor, Arakunrin Rotimi Akeredolu. Arakunrin as an interpretative Yoruba coinage for the English word “Mr” is a tempered version of Ogbeni, adopted by truculent Osun State ex-governor and current Minister of Interior, Rauf Aregbesola. But both have some cynicism to them, communicating pejorative meanings in character presentation and dissemination, particularly the Ogbeni interpretative conversion.  I digress.

At the Lagos presser, I noticed a few things, though I ended up not asking the questions I had down, because veteran journalist and Guardian MD, Mr Martins Oloja, spoke my mind and I believe, of others, in his semi-upbraid of the chair, which was widely-received and roundly-applauded. He spoke to Bawa like a father figure to the appreciation of those in audience, I believe, including EFCC staff present, many who I noticed their discomfort when sparks flew between the energetic chair and two editors who wanted to tell him some home truth.

No, Bawa wasn’t crude to anyone, though he could do with better restraint when upset. In fact, he is a chatty, likeable fellow who wants to be loved, especially for the job he is doing. That should be a legitimate aspiration, only that Nigerians, especially senior journalists, have seen too many of his kind come into sensitive positions, with their swags and warts, only to become a real baggage to the nation, when unearned or more-than-earned adulation fills the airwaves. If the senior journalists present weren’t too enthusiastic with his presented and I must add, decent job report, he should pardon their cynicism. Nigerians deserve to be cynical towards their leaders, which is a worry to Bawa. He wanted to be given a chance to prove he won’t be anyone’s, including his alleged big cousin’s, boi-boi (errand boy) and I hold it is rightly-demanded.

If he also felt demeaned by the constant reference to him as a young person-guess it made him feel like a schoolboy being scolded for wetting his socks- it would be a right emotion for him, even if the obvious payback coin was unnecessary. April 30, this year, he would be 42 years! Apart from Ibrahim Magu and Farida Waziri, others before him, also got into same office, in their 40s, though he remains the youngest. I hold he should be spared that reference, all the time. Governor Ron DeSantis of Florida, who has Donald Trump’s star power between him and being the Republican presidential candidate in 2024, was born on September 14, 1978. So, what is the big deal about Bawa, being 42 and fighting crime?

I figure the age referencing is more emotional for the EFCC chair, because his visage isn’t even looking 35. Despite the basketball-height, his boyish look could fix him at udergrads’ age bracket. Instead of trying to even scores and come across as rude, the next time some demeaning comes his way about his fresh face, he should take it as a compliment. Many are dying to have his look!

The vision should matter more to him. It is gratifying he says his leadership is on a mission to change the trajectory that has turned the office to a cancer, destroying both the good and bad. I was going to ask Bawa if he had considered how his four predecessors, minus those who acted briefly, ended. The office, the job, consumed them. None left ceremoniously, including the duo of Nuhu Ribadu and Ibrahim Magu, considered the toughest on the job, particularly Magu, who restored the fear factor to the commission. At a point, he was almost invincible, but when his own sunset came, he was accosted like a common Yahoo boy and rag-dolled before the Ayo Salami panel that eventually fixed him.

Bawa is a safe bet for now. At least, his “supervisor” is still in the constituted authority’s book. If there is any time, he shouldn’t engage in any reckless swashbuckle, it is now that he appears covered, so that the Omoluabi ethos demonstrated today, will count when the banana peel, that consumed others before him, is thrown his path. The office and the job will see to the peel, flying at him. His ways now will determine his fate then. May he finish well.

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