There is no denying that a corrupt judge
is worse than an armed robber. Last week’s soft-landing for two judges
accused of corruption by the National Judicial Council shows that we are
not serious about the fight against corruption. Even though the NJC had
been commended for its action, the action of the NJC deserves no
commendation. By recommending two judges — Justice C. E. Archibong of
the Federal High Court, Lagos and Justice T.D. Naron of High Court of
Justice, Plateau State — whom it found guilty of compromising their
sacrosanct offices, for “compulsory retirement”, what the NJC had done
was to tell the judges to go home and enjoy the proceeds from their
corruption. A corrupt official should be summarily dismissed or
recommended for dismissal, not sent on “compulsory retirement.”
Retirement presupposes that the judges are entitled to all their
benefits after a meritorious service, but dismissal means that their
tenure had a question mark.
Continue after the cut....
It was also curious that there was no
comment from the NJC that suggested that it planned to report the judges
to the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission or the police for
prosecution. The NJC’s recommendation that the two judges be
compulsorily retired by their employers, the Federal Government and the
Plateau State Government respectively, was not different from the
unpopular fine of N750,000 Justice Abubakir Talba gave to Mr John Yusuf,
a self-confessed thief, who admitted to have stolen N2bn of the N27.2
billion of missing police pension fund a few weeks back. In that same
case, Justice Talba, who is also being investigated by the NJC, insulted
the sensibilities of Nigerians and made us a laughing stock of the
world, by that ridiculous judgment.
Compare that with the ongoing case of a
former US congressman and one-time Democratic Party rising star, Jesse
Jackson Jnr., who pleaded guilty last Wednesday to misusing about
$750,000 in campaign funds on luxuries such as fur capes and a Rolex
watch. A five-year prison term is staring him in the face. And going
forward, his political future has been destroyed. He has been tainted
for life. He will never contest any election or be appointed to any
public office in the US. No serious person will like to be publicly
associated with him again. With such heavy consequences, why would any
American public office holder want to be corrupt?
The action and inaction of Nigerians at
all levels show that it pays to be corrupt in Nigeria. And if corruption
pays, it is logical that corruption will worsen in Nigeria. Integrity
hardly pays here. If it ever does, it pays in trickles. But corruption
pays in billions of naira, which are used to make donations to churches,
mosques, communities and universities, to “cleanse” the corrupt money
and acquire prayers, titles, awards and honours.
Nigerians love to pontificate and lament
about corruption but when a person is being tried for corruption or a
crime, his people gather around the court premises, sometimes in clothes
bearing the accused’s picture and name, and praise him for being a rare
gem. Such people claim that their son is being persecuted for his stand
against the government. Another comment from such people is: “Is he the
only corrupt person? Why haven’t other corrupt people been arrested
too?”
Taking it further, it was ridiculous that
the House of Representatives and the Senate gave the anti-terrorism
bill accelerated hearing, giving a 20-year jail term for a “terrorist”,
while not doing anything to strengthen the anti-corruption law. Section
2(c) of the bill defines “act of terrorism” as any act by anyone who is
involved in or who causes an attack upon a person’s life which may cause
serious bodily harm or death; kidnapping of a person; destruction to a
government or public facility, transport system, an infrastructural
facility including an information system, a fixed platform located on
the continental shelf, public place or private property likely to
endanger human life or result in major economic loss. Almost all the
states have also passed laws on kidnapping with a capital punishment for
the crime. These are commendable steps. But a serious doctor who wants
to cure malaria would not focus primarily on headache or fever and
discountenance the root cause of the headache and fever: malaria.
It is, therefore, laughable that such
laws are being passed in a country where the maximum penalty for
stealing billions of public funds is about two years. Just as in the
cases of former Governor Diepreye Alamieyeseigha, and former
Inspector-General of Police, Mr Tafa Balogun; by the time they were
sentenced, they had spent such periods of time in detention, and
consequently walked out of detention as free as a bird. Why then would
someone in office not steal as much as he can?
It is the same fate that befalls drug
traffickers and advance-fee fraudsters in Nigeria: Their sentences are
usually less than two years. By the time their cases are done with, they
just walk out of detention, because they must have spent up to a year
in detention while the case was on. Such a person begins to plan for the
next crime, because the punishment for the crime is ridiculous.
In contrast, those who steal a goat worth
N5, 000 or a motorcycle worth N30, 000 are sentenced to up to 10 years
in prison. Some are even forgotten in detention for over 10 years
without any trial. Many of them die in the terrible prisons in the
nation.
Rather than speedily passing laws on
terrorism and kidnapping, which are indirect products of the monumental
corruption in the nation, one would have expected the National Assembly
to have amended the laws on corruption, drug trafficking, fraud – three
crimes that have made every Nigerian a suspect in all parts of the world
– and recommending a minimum of 20 years prison term for such offences
with no option of fine. That is still more lenient than the death
penalty in countries like China, Indonesia, Malaysia for such crimes.
Such heavy sentences will not deter hardened criminals from such crimes,
but before anyone decides to embark on such a crime, the person will
know that if caught and jailed, chances are that he/she will come out
prison in his/her old age.
And this fight against corruption does
not stop only with public officers who steal public funds or demand
bribes for contracts and appointments; it also involves the private
citizens who demand bribes to award contracts to certain companies. It
involves the private citizen who collects gratification to continue to
use particular suppliers for jobs. It involves the man or woman who will
not sign a document on his or her table unless a certain amount of
money is made. It involves the pastor that collects money before he can
pray for a sick person, or the pastor that does not care how his members
make the money they donate to his church; or the journalist that will
demand money before he can write a story, or the journalist that will
collect money to kill a story; or the lecturer that will demand money or
sex to give a student good grades; or the community, church, mosque or
university that celebrates a person known to be a criminal; or even the
ordinary Nigerian that keeps quiet about the corruption of his or her
friend or relative. Corruption is corruption — whether big or small —
and it is dangerous to the growth of a nation.
It is contradictory and hypocritical for
our people to complain bitterly about corruption in public places, yet
when our relative or kinsman gets into any political office, we believe
that it is his turn to get rich. And if he leaves office without
stupendous wealth, we call him foolish or holier-than-thou. In addition,
once our kinsman gets into office, we mount personal and communal
pressure on him with a long list of many things he must accomplish for
us.
The time has come for us to stop
commending any effort that is a mere slap on the wrist of a corrupt
person. If we don’t fight corruption with zest, the wealth of this
nation will continue to be stolen by a few people, and all efforts to
transform this nation will be in vain.
-Azuka Onwuka (azuka.brand@augustconsulting.biz)
Share your thoughts...thanks!
No comments:
Post a Comment