Breaking The Stalemate of Corruption

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.