When the government announced its decision to remove prosecutorial powers from the EFCC and other anti-corruption bodies last Monday, I was stunned, enraged, and hurt. I totally lost respect for President Yar’Adua. For the record, I no longer feel as embittered about the issue. Because he had the good sense to correct himself, and because he effected that correction swiftly, the president has since regained some of  the lost trust.

But since the attorney general is such a sensitive post, the question must now be asked: can the president trust his current attorney general? Is Mr Aondoakaa worthy of his position, and does he deserve the president’s trust?

The decision to defang the nations anti-corruption agencies was supposedly hinged on respect for the  “rule of law”, and on the constitutional powers of the AGF. If that was the case, why didn't the AGF also remove the prosecutorial powers of the police, the customs, the NDLEA, and the many other bodies who also have powers to prosecute alleged criminals? Why pick only anti-corruption agencies?

Another question: how did the EFCC become the AGF’s first priority in office? Is the EFCC the greatest impediment to justice in Nigeria, or did Mr Aondoakaa assume his new office with a hidden agenda  that the president, and the rest of us, are unaware of?

During his press conference on Tuesday, Mr. Aondoakaa kept repeating how the EFCC must not detain anybody, without trial, beyond 48 hours. Fair enough; but  there are thousands of Nigerian citizens who have been in jail, for months and years on end, without trial. Our prisons are filled with people who have never been charged with anything, in court or outside of it.  Police departments routinely detain people for however long they deem fit without regard for the law. If the AGF is such a big warrior for constitutional rights, why didn’t he start by checking the excesses in the police department? Why start with anti-corruption bodies, of all places?

Mr Aondoakaa’s move was not even legal. As more informed lawyers quickily pointed out, the AGF's directive contravened existing supreme court verdicts, not to mention common sense. On a matter of law that squarely deals with his own powers as AGF, one would have expected the nation’s chief  justice officer  to be a little more informed. At the very least, one would have expected him to do some home work before rushing out a policy that affects the war on corruption, the one issue that has truncated our national aspirations. Or was the attorney general blinded by zeal to some hidden mission  that the rest of us are unaware of?

I have heard that Mr Aondoakaa was nominated into cabinet by the very people who are being investigated by the EFCC. That may or may not be true, but the AGF's actions so far have  done nothing to dispute the impression that he is merely an errand boy fronting for the mob.

No one man should have absolute power to pick and choose what criminal gets prosecuted. That’s just too much power for one man, and that kind of power will be abused sooner than later. I am no lawyer, but if our constitution has given such powers to any one man, that’s a serious defect  we need to remedy, right now.

And now that Mr Aondoakaa has shown his true color, Mr. President, if he chooses to retain his services, would be well advised to keep a close eye on the AGF, and to view his future requests and claims with a truck-load of salt.

Dominic Ogbonna. Toronto, Canada.