The absence of the rule of law fuels corruption, which remains the bane of development in Nigeria, 55 years after independence, CHARLES ABAH and CHUX OHAI write
In Nigeria, corruption exists in different forms and corrupt practices come in different shades. For example, a policeman on duty who receives money from a motorist that has just broken a traffic rule and allows him to go scot-free is guilty of corruption. The motorist is equally guilty of bribery for twisting the judgment of a man in a position of trust with a monetary offer.
In countries where such anti-social behaviour is abhorred, the offending traffic warden may be dismissed from the police service, while the motorist could be jailed for offering bribe to a law enforcement agent and for abetting corruption.
There have been cases of public officers illegally appropriating properties and funds meant for the public for private uses. In official and legal circles, this is regarded as a fraudulent and an unethical behaviour. When a government official diverts the resources meant for public use, he denies thousands – even millions – of other people the services or other benefits that they were supposed to provide.
The law frowns at misappropriation of public funds as much as it forbids those in positions of authority, especially in the public sector, to use their positions to favour their close relatives or friends even when they do not merit it.
Politicians that are in the habit of buying votes from the electorate, intimidating and cajoling voters into voting for them or offering electoral officers special incentives in return for victory over opponents in the polls, may also be guilty of corruption.
Also, telling lies to gain an advantage over somebody else, institution or something is sometimes regarded as an act of corruption.
Corruption in high places
Nigerians have witnessed several cases of corruption against high-ranking government officials in the past. Some state governors have been indicted at home and abroad for allegedly looting the treasuries of their various states or for being connected with scams and missing cash involving hundreds of millions of naira.
The most common subject of debate is tendency among some state governors, ministers and other highly-placed public officers to divert money meant for the development of their constituencies into personal bank accounts abroad.
Two of the most celebrated cases of corruption, in this regard, are the ones involving a former Speaker of the House of Repreentatives, who was compelled to quit office due to a N628 million scam, and her immediate successor. The latter was also accused of misappropriating capital budget funds totaling about N9bn.
Corruption is believed to be rife at the local government level. Chairmen of councils or leaders of caretaker committees appointed in the interim are accused of gross misappropriation of public funds. Evidence of this lies in poor infrastructure and absence of any form of physical development in many LGAs across the country, despite the large budgetary allocations received by the leadership each year.
Weak institutions
Even as many seem to agree that past administrations did not do much to put a check on the monster, some discerning analysts have put the blame on the activities of the prosecuting agencies, such as the Economic and the Financial Crimes Commission, the ICPC, Code of Conduct Tribunal and the courts.
According to them, these organs are at best dogs that can only bark but do not have sufficient liveliness to bite. That people hold this view is not surprising. There have been numerous examples of botched high-profile cases that the citizens feel the prosecuting agencies either have failed in their responsibilities to pursue or are intimidated by the personalities accused of soiling their hands in the public till.
The former Delta State Governor, James Ibori, who currently is serving a jail term in the United Kingdom, over allegations of corruption, is one of the easily-cited examples. Despite the huge corruption allegations slammed against him in Nigeria by the EFCC, the politician literally walked out free from the courts.
The poor handling of his case, many say, points to the un-seriousness of the authorities and the prosecuting agencies as well as the huge mockery the anti-corruption battle has become in the country.
Apart from the Ibori saga, steps taken by the prosecuting organs in other cases preferred against such notable Nigerians, as former governors, Orji Uzo Kalu, (Abia); Jolly Nyame, (Taraba); Chimaroke Nnamani, (Enugu); Joshua Dariye, (Plateau) and Saminu Turaki, (Jigawa) did not go down well with many Nigerians.
They also allege that the cases involving former state governors, such as Lucky Igbinedion of Edo State; Boni Haruna, (Adamawa State); Abubakar Audu, (Kogi); Diepreye Alamieyeseigha and Timipre Silva, (Bayelsa) betrayed the unpreparedness of the prosecuting organs and past administrations to fight corruption.
Although the list seems endless, the cases of former governor Danjuma Goje of Gombe State, Senators Evans Enwerem, Chuba Okadigbo, Ita Giwa, Ibrahim Mantu, Rowland Owie, Ayoola Agboola, former Oyo Governor, Adebayo Alao-Akala, former House of Representatives Speaker, Dimeji Bankole, Senator Iyabo Obasanjo, daughter of former President Olusegun Obasanjo, cannot be wished away, too.
Many Nigerians also frequently refer to the court injunction perpetually restraining the prosecuting agencies from trying a former governor of Rivers State, Dr. Peter Odili. Such a ruling, they say, makes mockery of the commitment of the authorities to wage a war against the vice.
Another demonstration of a weak legal institution manifests in the case concerning a Director, at the Police Pension Office, Mr. John Yusuf, involved in apolice pension scam. Yusuf, who was convicted for fraudulently converting N2bn police pension funds to his private use, bagged only a two-year jail sentence with an option to pay a fine of N750, 000.
An Abuja High Court presided over by Justice Abubakar Talba, on January 28, 2013, found Yusuf guilty on the ground of criminal misappropriation and stealing charges slammed on him. The EFCC had dragged him to the court under section 309 of the Penal Code Act, Cap 532, Laws of the Federal Capital Territory, Abuja, Nigeria, 2007.
But as people hold this opinion about the agencies, the latter have always insisted that they have done pretty good in the fight against corruption. For instance, the EFCC will readily point to the many cases it has prosecuted as pointer to its seriousness in the crusade.
Obasanjo, Jonathan eras
Although the Obasanjo administration inaugurated many of the existing anti-graft agencies, many Nigerians hold the view that the administration then, more than anything, used them as instruments of witch-hunt and victimisation. According to them, the former president used the agencies to harass and intimidate those whose political and ideological leanings differed from his. Also they insist that the trials of Alamieyeseigha, Okadigbo, Enwerem, among other cases had deep political colouration.
Interestingly, even as the Obasanjo administration takes a lot of bashing for this, there is no denying the fact that the era also witnessed the delisting of Nigeria from the comity of the non-cooperative nations in the fight against corruption and money laundering by the Financial Action Task Force. The FATF is responsible for combating money laundering and financing of terrorism.
The immediate past administration of President Goodluck Jonathan, many analysts similarly claim, was not assertive in the war against corruption. Many insist that the EFCC, ICPC and CCB were rendered ineffective for the almost six years that Jonathan held forte as the president.
Strategising for robust prosecution
On why there seems to be no huge success in the war against graft, a Lagos lawyer, Mr. Malachy Ugwumadu, links the impediment to many factors, including lack of political will and ideological contradictions.
The disposition of the law enforcement agents as well as lack of incentives for them and the culture of impunity by the political class, he notes, are some other inhibiting factors to the fight.
Ugwumadu, while urging President Buhari to maximise the support he has received so far from the citizens to fight the “virus”, advises him to distance himself from the operational assignments of the anti-corruption agencies. He also recommends that the prosecuting agencies need better funding in order to guarantee their independence.
He adds, “President Buhari needs to exploit the moral rectitude that led him to victory. It was his integrity and character that led to his electoral victory and he must bring this to the table. Therefore, in doing this, there should be no sacred cow. Any accused person, whether in the PDP or the APC or in the civil service, must be ready to face prosecution.
“Again, apart from creating an enabling environment for training the operatives, there is the need to offer them better incentives.
“Finally, the judiciary must be disposed to the fight against corruption. Members of that arm of government must be ready and willing to assist within the confines of the law and not to allow reactionary lawyers to bamboozle the prosecuting officials.”
Also, another Lagos-based lawyer, Fred Agbaje, blames past governments for the ever-worsening incidence of corruption in the country.
He says, “Past governments only succeeded in sowing the seeds of corruption. These seeds have germinated in an alarming and embarrassing proportion. It is now that President Muhammadu Buhari is trying to take some meaningful steps to arrest the negative developments caused by corruption. Otherwise, the previous governments, including the ones headed by former Presidents Olusegun Obasanjo, the late Umaru Yar’Adua and Goodluck Jonathan, paid lip service to this problem.
“This is why, under these men’s watch, corruption became a monster. It became a major industry that employed more than 90 per cent of Nigerians. With that kind of massive employment created by corruption, it became very difficult to fight it.”
To make matters worse, Agbaje notes, the anti-graft agency saddled with the responsibility of fighting corruption became overwhelmed by the social malady at a point.
Arguing that the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission itself has lost the fight against corruption, even as an allegation of corruption continues to hang on the leadership of the commission, he says, “With that kind of situation, what do you expect to come out of the fight against corruption, particularly by an institution that was created to do so? Of course, with that type of moral baggage hanging on the EFCC, it will be difficult to fight the monster.
“Let us see what comes out of the Saraki’s case. I am saying here that Nigerians will be so shocked, despite all the media hype about the matter, when the tribunal decides to dismiss the case for want of hard-core evidence to substantiate the allegation. It will be waved aside, jus the same way the case against Femi Fami-Kayode was thrown out.
“I don’t expect anything good from the present leadership of the anti-corruption agency. They just woke up only when Buhari assumed office. What had they been doing all these years?”
Calling on the Federal Government to put in place a strong legislation that will provide support for the anti-graft agencies, he describes the present crop of leaders for the National Assembly as lacking the moral fibre to lead an effective fight against corruption.
He says, “Are the present leaders of the National Assembly the ones to pass laws for an effective fight against corruption and good governance? How many of them have clean hands? Is it the likes of former state governors who were in office for eight years and during that period looted their state treasuries that will now pass laws for an effective campaign against corruption?
“I feel sorry for Buhari because at the end of the day, his body language will become a failure. Without effective legislation, his body language will amount to nothing. After he completes his tenure and leaves what comes next? How are we sure that the person that succeeds him will continue the fight?”
Death penalty for corruption
In line with calls from many Nigerians for a very stringent penalty for people found guilty of corruption, Agbaje hints that he might favour the death penalty.
He says, “I am not against the death penalty, if it will solve this problem, as we have witnessed in China; by helping to reduce the incidence of corruption to the barest minimum, so be it!
“Although some people have argued that despite the death penalty for armed robbery in Nigeria, robbers are still operating in the country, nobody wants to die. A looter will want to stay alive to enjoy his stolen money. But when you introduce death penalty and even make the money useless to his family, they will think again.”
