Breaking The Stalemate Of Corruption - Olu Ojedokun and Jamila Suleiman
Today because of the
corruption that has engulfed our governance the largest people living in
poverty are children. A significant number now live in the most backbreaking,
gut-wrenching poverty any could imagine. However, if we accept fidelity to our 16-year-old
freedom from military rule and democracy is the code of our civic religion then
surely our code to our humanity should be faithful service to that unwritten
commandment that says ‘We shall give our
children better that we ourselves receive.’
However, the rampancy of corruption according to Joda, found everywhere,
denies us access to that unwritten rule.
’Segun Osoba, the academic
argued that
whilst corruption is a global phenomenon only intelligible within its social
context, as an anti-social behaviour it confers improper benefits contrary to
legal and moral norms and undermines the authorities’ capacity to secure the
welfare of citizens. His concern for Nigeria is that corruption has become the
principal means of private accumulation and has come to shape political
activity within the polity.
These
corrupt tendencies in Nigeria are corroborated and are renowned in the
international community. Within this context Nigeria had enacted several pieces
of legislation seeking to criminalise accumulation that cannot be
satisfactorily accounted for and not directly attributable to income. Thus, the
independent and Corrupt practices (and other related matters) Commission Act
2000 (As Amended), (ICPC) the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission Act 2011
(As Amended) (EFCC) as well as the Penal and Criminal codes all seek to ensure
that Nigerians keep within the Code of Conduct provisions encapsulated within
the Constitution of the Federal Republic of Nigeria 1999, (As Amended).
In
proffering explanations for enactment of the laws and in setting up of their
respective commissions to prosecute suspects of corrupt practices, Hannatu Raji
wrote that the impetus to create the ICPC rested on “…The resolve to fight and
win the war against corruption in Nigeria…”
However, after the exit of the pioneer chairman (Ribadu)
from the EFCC, the zeal to fight corruption appears to have gone from 100 to
zero amid the negatives. The evidence rests in the fact showing many corruption
trials have not gone beyond the plea stage, some for as long as six years after
first arraignment in court. Many
ex-government office holders, who had been accused of corruption, are still
free and not been subject to any sanctions. Some of them were elected into the
National Assembly and are making laws for the country. The archives of the EFCC
is littered with details of the cases abandoned or which remains in abeyance by
the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC), in the period stretching
from 2008 till date.
Any criminal lawyer worth his/her salt knows that the
ability and success of curbing corruption in Nigeria depends on the combination
of a number of factors, namely, the exhaustiveness of legal provisions of
statutes to meet the innovative tendencies developed for private accumulation
at the expense of the public, the efficacy of the police and anti-corruption
commissions to properly investigate and arraign suspects, the efficacy of
judicial officers to properly prosecute as well as the willingness and ability
of the executive to insist on the implementation of laws whilst desisting from
tacit approval of corrupt practices.
From the scenario presented in the previous paragraphs, it
is obvious that the attainment of the combination of these factors in Nigeria
has failed. Investigation, prosecution and conviction have been rendered
costly, problematic and almost always unachievable. It therefore appears that
neither the penal system as it presently operates, nor the political will that
subsist are sufficient to cope with and address the scale of crimes of
corruption in Nigeria.
Another clue as to why the stalemate seems to have arisen, may be situated
within
the argument that Nigeria’s legal system places much emphasis on retributive
rather than restorative justice and posits this has given rise to lack of
remorse on the part of offenders who now demand proof of their culpability
during trial rather than show remorse. We question why the sentencing and
custodial option should be adopted and thereafter public funds are spent again
to decongest the prisons. In reality Nigerian legal system proffers stiff
penalties, which are in reality unenforceable, making a mockery of the whole
system. We
therefore advocate
that the use of Restorative Justice options such as plea-bargaining, bail
process and victim-offender mediation be considered. This revolves around the
cognisance of the underlying issues involved in an offence, which ranges from
sociological, psychological and economical.
It
is in line with the scenario presented above that the adaptation and
implementation of a Truth and Reconciliation Commission process with its legacy
of downplaying the punitive aspects of the traditional criminal justice system
and focusing on an alternative penal justice system is suggested. Adaptation
and implementation of the model will encourage more admissions of involvement
in private accumulation from public funds rather than face the option of long
jail terms put at “not less than 15 years
and not more than 25 years” by, for instance, the EFCC Act.
The
value in adapting a TRC model emerges from the apparent success achieved as a
tool in mediating conflicts around the world and particularly in South Africa.
In Nigeria, these are conflicts where significant parts of the governing elite
are implicated or where stalemates have ensued. Nigeria is in a combat
situation as far as corruption is concerned and many of the penalties in place
are in reality unenforceable. That is
why we in our academic contribution to knowledge, a few months ago authored a
seminal paper ‘The Problematic Of
Competing Or Reconcilable Paradigms in The Adaptation Of The Truth and Reconciliation
Commission Model In Addressing Crimes Of Corruption In Nigeria’ in the Journal of Law and Criminal Justice,
USA, arguing for the recognition of
some sort of parallel of this war against corruption in Nigeria to those of
other conflicted societies.
Dr. Olu Ojedokun of Lead City
University writes from Ibadan, whilst Ms. Jamila Suleiman of Modibbo Adama University of Technology, writes from Yola.
