Nigeria’s criminal justice system has often been criticised and
ridiculed for its inability to secure convictions, particularly for
offences perpetuated by high profile individuals. Yet, one recalls the
case of a young man, Kelvin Ighodalo, who was sentenced to 45 years in
prison for stealing Governor Rauf Aregbesola’s N50,000 Sony Ericsson
phone.
Our justice system is inherently flawed but the current debate over
reform efforts is lacking in substance as it focuses mostly on efforts
to bring corrupt public officials to heel (which is definitely needed,
corruption kills Nigerians let’s never forget it) but the brunt of the
system’s injustice and unfairness is actually experienced by the poor
masses who spend years in jail awaiting trial, while the rich accused of
worse crimes, simply make bail and then wait it out while the case is
adjourned till it is forgotten.
Nigerian lawyers have become experts at exploiting the system’s
weaknesses and there is as of yet, no real punishment for counsels who
frustrate trials or undermine the law’s processes. It is only in Nigeria
that the accused can refuse to appear in court and where one can be a
sitting governor or senator and still have fraud charges to answer to,
making a mockery of our country’s laws and the universal ethics and best
practices which would call for one to clear one’s name in court before
returning to public office.
Terminal illness
Interestingly, every politically connected person accused of
corruption always suddenly and mysteriously develops cancer, or some
other terminal illness, but the poor rotting away without access to
legal aid are not allowed their own gripping theatrics.
Nobody is ever guilty of corruption in Nigeria but the poor; they are
always guilty, sometimes of such paltry offences as stealing bread or
pepper after which, if they are not lynched by a mob or beaten by the
police; they languish in jail, for much longer than the legally allotted
time, where they are raped and beaten again, contracting diseases,
lucky to escape with their lives.
So tell me, whose human rights are compromised? Photographs of
purportedly ill, wealthy Nigerians rumoured to have made away with the
gross earnings of a small country, do not prove innocence, rather they
prey on our ignorance and short term memory while the many incarcerated
Nigerians who often don’t even know what crime they are being held for
do not receive either our pity or the loathsome “witch hunt” defence
which Olisa Metuh and the PDP popularised. On the subject of Mr Metuh
who recently celebrated his 50th birthday in an IDP camp, I wonder what
long term strategies he has either considered or proposed to lessen
their suffering beyond sharing his landmark celebration with them.
Nigeria is plagued by surface charity and opportunistic gestures
which the media feeds citizens as righteous, all part of an elaborate
scheme keeping us grateful for crumbs, never daring to demand our rights
be respected or enforced. Let us make no mistake if there is a witch
hunt in Nigeria, it has always been the poor who have been persecuted
simply for being poor and not having the resources to subvert the law.
However, beyond updating our laws, we must tackle the social
vicissitudes enabling crime in the first place, be it white-collar crime
and corruption or organised crime and kidnappings.
Seventy per cent of the Nigerian population is deprived or living
outside the laws or rules which normally apply in most societies,
fending for themselves by whatever means. It is in this environment that
many, if not most, of our future leaders are raised. The Social Justice
Policy group, a UK based think-tank, recognises six paths to poverty:
family breakdown, educational failure, addictions, economic dependence
and personal debt.
The link between social breakdown, poverty and crime isn’t new yet it
is ignored if not denied in Nigeria. From the Niger Delta insurgency,
to Boko Haram in the North, the solutions cannot simply be based on the
military. The dysfunctionality of the Nigerian society breeds insurgency
and criminality. Yet, few government policies work towards
strengthening families: so many children, or youth feel condemned to a
life of poverty and grow up without feeling they are part of something,
whether a family or a community that cares for them and empowers them,
by either encouraging them or providing them with the tools to make a
better life possible. So they are easily led, fed the wrong ideas and
fight with weapons, ironically the only accessible tools, for causes
they don’t fully understand.
Many of our politicians are victims of our broken country and society
where inadequate parenting, abuse, exposure to violence from a young
age and to a volatile existence, make it that a boy who grew up without
shoes couldn’t see the exceptional opportunity he had before him to
liberate this country from those who oppose its greatness: he simply
wasn’t prepared to be a leader because our society trains young people
for banditry and ethnic opportunism, but not for selfless leadership.
Selfless leadership
Many of our politicians are incapable of empathy for the suffering of
their constituents because our society does not breed sensitive,
thoughtful individuals: the average Nigerian is so hardened, deadened by
suffering that by the time (if he is lucky) he reaches any position of
responsibility, all he wants to do is to make up for lost time.
For any real justice reform to work, we must look beyond seeing
justice as punishment for wrongdoing (although crime and punishment must
follow to act as a deterrent). We must fight social exclusion by
creating interconnected communities with strong families, which teach
life skills and the value of personal responsibility.
As parents, employees, citizens, dereliction of duty, abandoning our
tasks and duties to others, is too frequent, we must take charge of our
destinies. Government, to support us, must fix our education system so
that poverty ceases to be a death sentence and crime or corruption are
no longer the only way one can exist or succeed in society.
Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala
The former Minister of Finance
(there is no more coordinating Minister of the Economy as the title
usurps the functions of the Vice-President) says about $500 million
recovered from Gen.Sani Abacha was spent in the 2004-2005 federal
budgets on roads, electricity, education, water and health.
It is interesting then that the majority of federal owned roads
remain in an embarrassing state of disrepair and that we have neither
electricity, water nor a real health care system. As for education, it
would be ludicrous to imagine that the much celebrated (by the PDP)
Almajiri schools which are nothing more than edifices without much
content would gulp such amounts.
The World Banksays it wasn’t in charge of monitoring how the funds
were spent, implying that was up to the government in place at the time.
The former Finance Minister, in company of her former colleagues in
health, education, etc, should indeed explain, why after such a colossal
investment, Nigerians remain so devoid of such basic government
services.
Then, the Ministry of Information, could provide Nigerians with
infographics explaining just how much $500 million can transform a
country, what it could be used to do. Then perhaps instead of
witch-hunting, we’ll talk about public outrage.
Mustapha Audu
A BLOGGER released a story alleging she was raped by the former governor of Kogi’s son, Mustapha, his brothers and friends. Years after the fact, with a grossly inadequate penal code and a police
force with neither the will to question high profile suspects or
accused, nor the capacity to do so, will we ever know the truth?
Vanguard
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