Gambaryan’s Flower of Thorns

‘Bad boy’ Gambaryan, chose the day of love to throw sand in the gari of honour of the officials of this government. He chose Valentine’s Day to go for the jugular of officials of the Bola Tinubu government whom he accused of unimaginable graft.

The American understands Nigeria very well. He said so himself that he “met amazing people in Nigeria”, but regrettably, “It’s a shame that these muppets are in charge.” He knew the psychology game he wanted to play, and he went for the very soul of the nation’s security architecture by accusing the National Security Adviser (NSA), Malam Nuhu Ribadu, of demanding bribes running into millions of dollars from him.

Do Nigerians trust their governments – federal, state and local? Do they have confidence that at any given time those in charge of the nation’s affairs will do that which is right, noble and of goodwill? In any dispute or accusation between the officials of the Nigerian Government and any foreign body, who will the Nigerian populace believe, who will they trust?

Lack of trust between our government and the citizenry has been a disturbing issue from time immemorial. This is so because of the three ingredients of Trust: Competence, Character, and Caring, enunciated by the American military psychologist, Patrick J. Sweeney. Our leaders are below zero point in all! If there are a few exceptions among them, the number is so small and abysmally inconsequential.

This is why when the American fugitive, Tigran Gambaryan, an executive of the notorious Binance Holdings Limited, who was released on ‘parole’ by the Nigerian Government in October 2024 after many months in detention, came calling with his allegations of bribery against top officials of the government, many Nigerians believed him. You cannot blame them!

Trust is a phenomenon that any government takes lightly at its own risk. It is too key an issue to be treated with levity. Unfortunately, in this clime, the government cares less about its trust equity with the people. This is why they carry on in the art and act of governance in the usual street parlance of business-as-usual! Too bad, too sad!

 A simple definition of trust, as given by the English sociologist, Anthony Gidden, says trust “is the confidence in the ability of individuals or systems regarding specific outcomes.” He goes further to say that trust becomes more important in social institutions (like the government) and relationships given the “heightened awareness of risk” in the modern society. Gidden therefore submits that “trust depends on moral quality, values, institutional cultures, which shape how trust is established and maintained in contemporary life.”

Jack R. Gibb (August 26, 1927-August 20, 2020), a psychologist and clinician, in his 1978 “Trust Level Theory”, says, “When there is a high level of Trust, we are freed up to be ourselves and can drop limiting roles and positions. Trust naturally leads to Openness—people say what they think, know, care about, and need.” His position was determined by the simple definition of Trust as “the belief that another person will do what is expected.” The question is: have our leaders done what is expected of them for the masses to trust them and defend them when the need arises?

There is no gainsaying that corruption wears a three-piece suit in this government and the ones before it. Corruption in Nigeria is not just endemic, permeating every facet of our system, it is as old as the foundation of the entity itself.  The only era in the history of Nigeria where one can say with boldness that great men ruled would be the First Republic. Thereafter, it has been a free fall to the bottomless pit of monumental sleaze!

This present political dispensation which began in 1999 has opened our eyes to see the stuff our leaders are made of. The recycling of those who took the batons of leadership in 1999 in our political firmament has shown that there is nothing altruistic in the scrambling for power in Nigeria. This is why it is easy for someone, using one political platform, to be speaker of a House of Assembly for eight years: governor of the same state for another eight years under the same party and in the next round of election to pick up a ministerial appointment for another eight years in the opposition party. Rotimi Amaechi of Rivers State comes to mind in this case.

He is not alone. His half sibling and successor as governor, Nyesom Wike is in the same league. Wike was a former Chief of Staff to Amaechi under the same Peoples Democratic Party (PDP), later former minister and then a state governor under the PDP. But today, without leaving the PDP, Wike picked up a ministerial appointment in the government led by an opposition party, the All Progressives Congress (APC). A system that produced and is still producing the likes of Atiku Abubakar, Bukola Saraki, Orji Uzor Kalu, Nasir el-Rufai and their ilk, who jump from one political bed to another, can never earn the trust and confidence of the people.

The recycling of these same figures and characters from the governorship to legislative offices, and from legislative chambers to the executive seats, and, or ministerial positions, is the reason why Gambaryan would call our leaders “muppets”, which in informal British English (BE) means: “someone who is perceived as foolish or incompetent.”

Gambaryan and his fellow felon, Nadeem Anjarwalla, were in 2024, arrested by the Federal Government on the accusation of financial impropriety. The duo, who were then top executives of the cryptocurrency firm, Binance, were accused of manipulating FX rates in Nigeria thereby destroying the country’s economy. They were charged to court. While on trial, Anjarwalla ‘escaped’ from custody and simply walked out of Nigeria! The excuse those in charge of his security gave was that he was allowed to go and pray!

Until the American Government intervened, Gambaryan was in custody and appearing in court. Then the Federal Government dropped all charges against him, and he was released. Seizing the opportunity of his negotiated ‘freedom’, Gambaryan, last week released some tweets on his X account, accusing Ribadu of demanding bribes from him

Understandably, the reactions of Nigerians to the allegation were that of affirmation. Many, who believe that nothing good could ever come out of the Nazareth of this government were ready to dance to the drumbeats of shame Gambaryan was beating for Ribadu.

This is so because Gambaryan had, earlier last year, accused three members of the House of Representatives of demanding bribes in the sum of $150 million from Binance to bury the case. That allegation led to one of the accused, Ginger Obinna Onwusibe, who is the Chairman of the House of Representatives Committee on Financial Crimes, to sue him, claiming the sum of $3bn as damages.

In his latest accusation, Gambaryan alleged that Ribadu demanded “billions in payouts to fund his future political ambition.” The American claimed: “@NuhuRibadu invited us to the official meeting and worked through Sa’ad Abubakar. Another key figure in this situation was Hamma Adama Belloji,” Gambaryan wrote… “Ribadu emphasized that he wanted billions in payouts to fund his future political ambition. However, when the corruption scandal came to light, he was trapped — because any settlement would now be perceived as a bribe. I guess he really wanted his boss’ job.”

This is where I lost it with Gambaryan. His claim that Ribadu needed the alleged bribe because the NSA “really wanted his boss’ job”, is, to me, off the mark. That is what fired my suspicion and why, in this matter, I would rather hold on to my hunch that Gambaryan was and is up to something different.

I am not the ‘Devil’s Advocate’ here; get that! I also do not hold brief for Ribadu’s publicist or any of the other persons named in this ‘scandal’. But many things are not adding up and I strongly feel that we cannot just allow that to pass.

The first is that going by the Patrick J. Sweeney’s three “Cs” component of Trust (Character, Competence and Caring), Gambaryan, the modern-day ‘accuser of the brethren’ is not in any position to accuse any Nigerian of corruption. Why? Simple. Both Gambaryan and the company he represented here in Nigeria, Binance, are the very artistic impression of corruption.

A man like Gambaryan, who had his trial for corruption negotiated by his home country, without exploring all the legal opportunities to clear his name, is not in any position to accuse anyone of corruption. It would have been a different ball game if he had availed himself of the opportunity to defend his name, and the accusation of corruption levelled against his company.

He was equally accused of offering a $5 million down payment in exchange for his freedom, in favour of a more beneficial settlement with the American government. He didn’t wait to defend that before he got his country to negotiate his ‘freedom’. How do we then resolve the issue of his complicity or otherwise in the $5 million settlement?

A man of “Character”, in Sweeney’s reckoning, would not accept a negotiated deal to abort his trial the way Gambaryan did. If he had no skeleton in his cupboard, and as a man of integrity that he is portraying himself to be, one would have expected that he would see his trial through. The fact that his partner-in-crime, Anjarwalla, ‘escaped’ while on trial, speaks volumes of the duo. Would one be safe to conclude that Gambaryan too would have ‘escaped’ if given the opportunity “to go and pray?”

Again, what of the antecedents of the cryptocurrency firm, Binance, in terms of corruption? What happened to its operations in China, Canada and even in the United States of America? Why was the company fined, deregistered and banned in those countries? A man who seeks equity must come with clean hands. I would have preferred if Gambaryan’s company had come clean in all its operations in the past. When the USA, for instance, got Binance to forfeit the sum of $2,510,650, 588 and pay a criminal fine of $1,805,475,575 for a total financial penalty of $4,316,126,163, why did Gambaryan stay on the Board of the company? How come his pot is the one to call the kettle black and we would be dancing Azonto for him?

I know that the argument that Binance is corrupt does not mean the allegations of bribery against Ribadu and the three legislators cannot be true. My point here is that the man making the allegations is not someone that we can trust because he lacks the “Competence, Character and Caring” elements to earn our Trust. The Federal Government of Nigeria accused Gambaryan and his company of destroying our economy. Rather than defend his name, the man got the USA to negotiate his release. On what terms? Nobody knows.

Then the next we heard from him is how the NSA demanded for “billions in payouts to fund his future political ambition”, concluding that Ribadu. “…really wanted his boss’ job.” What is the motive behind those statements? What did he want to achieve? Methinks that Gambaryan knows too well how important the Office of the NSA is in this government. And concluding that our leaders are “muppets’, he knew that such an allegation of ambition when Ribadu’s principal is angling for a second term, would no doubt cause a disconnect in the system. But that is the government’s ‘cup of tea’, as they say.

My worry for Ribadu in this ‘scandal’ is that I know it will take the second coming of our Lord for him to convince Nigerians that there was nothing to the allegation but sheer blackmail. Nobody will believe him, not necessarily because Nigerians believe that Ribadu is corrupt; but more because of the political company he keeps! Bad company, they say, corrupts good manners!

I dare say here that many Nigerians, including yours sincerely, were shocked, and still very much in shock, that of all people, Ribadu chose to pitch his political tent with the person of President Tinubu! How on earth the Adamawa-born retired police officer chose Tinubu as his godfather is the eighth wonder of the world!

When our elders say show me your friend and I will tell the person you are, they could not have found a better example like the present political configuration of the Tinubu administration. And this anomaly started in 2011, when Ribadu contested the presidency on the platform of Tinubu’s Action Congress of Nigeria (ACN). Who would have thought that Ribadu, as the Chairman of the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC), having categorised Tinubu as one of the three worst governors in Nigeria in terms of corruption, would run to the very corrupt fountain to drink?

When the sheep flocks with the dog, what do our elders say it would eat? A man who puts on a white apparel is often warned not to get close to the one carrying a keg of palm oil. Where is the lesson in that wisecrack in the relationship between Tinubu and Ribadu today? To believe that Gambaryan lied against Ribadu, Nigerians would first want to know at what time Tinubu experienced ‘regeneration’ or rebirth, such that today, the once ‘most corrupt governor in Nigeria’ is now the darling, boss and godfather of the very man who levelled the accusation against him after ‘thorough’ investigation! This is the quandary Ribadu has found himself.

The Office of the NSA stands topmost in the nation’s security architecture. That position is usually reserved for the president’s most trusted ally. So, if we may ask, at what point did Ribadu become Tinubu’s most trusted ally? What changed? What happened? These are the gaps in Ribadu’s relationship with his principal, Tinubu vis-a-vis the allegation of bribery Gambaryan threw at the NSA. Ribadu needs all the energy, wisdom and strategies at his disposal to build the Trust in the public that he is just a victim of a depraved American mind, who in an attempt to save himself from drowning would drag anybody down to the depth of the sea.

In closing, we consult Aristotle, who in his Nicomachean Ethics (1876), says: “Trust is a virtue because this character trait, along with being trustworthy, assists us to achieve eudaimonia” (state of happiness). Ribadu is no doubt walking precariously in his white garment at the Gambaryan’s palm oil store. This is not the time ‘silence is golden’ for him. The NSA owes the duty to convince Nigerians to Trust him or believe the American. I do not envy him, honestly!