The good, the bad and the president

摘要

Nigerians are painfully aware of how much corruption has cost their country-over $400 billion, according to official estimates. That is the equivalent of about two-thirds of all the aid given to the whole of Africa since the 1960s, and more than anything else explains why most people in this oil-rich country still live in poverty. Yet in recent years the government had started a belated fight against corruption. And if one man has become the symbol of that campaign it is the crusading young head of the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (efcc), Nuhu Ri-badu. Since 2003, Mr Ribadu has attained almost mythic status among his countrymen by charging and prosecuting the politicians, and particularly the state governors, who are responsible for most of the fraud and looting of public funds. For the first time, he gave Nigerians hope that their country could actually be different.