Mr. President in his speech to the 55th Annual General Conference of the Nigerian Bar ASSOCIATION holding in Abuja stated that “The fight against corruption is in reality a struggle for the restoration of law and order. Corruption and impunity become widespread when disrespect for law is allowed to thrive in society. Disrespect for law also thrives when people get away with all sorts of shady deals and the court system is somehow unable to check them.”
Mr. President’s speech is interesting as it acknowledged that corruption and impunity are like two goats tethered on the same rope. It therefore means that the focus on his government should be on “restoration of law and order” not just corruption as there is an interlink between corruption and impunity.
I must confess straightaway that to meaningfully restore law and order in the country is herculean; it is like fighting the drug war in Latin America. Our country has gone on like a ship without compass. People in authority and influential persons in the country demonstrated little respect for rule of law. On this, GEJ administration fared better than OBJ. However, this does not mean that we cannot win the war against corruption and impunity in the country. I think we can, if we start deep rooted, clear cut and principled reforms and purges of our institutions of government.
Impunity is widespread in the country because the government has not made it its business to check it. On daily basis, the rights of Citizens are grossly violated and many are dehumanized by State actors. The internal procedure for complaint by citizens to State departments in the country hardly work. Those in charge in many occasions deliberately frustrate complaints and some will employ moral persuasion to get citizens drop complaints. Meanwhile, the offending officers continue in office and often become more emboldened.
The court system in the country has been severely lampooned and presented as the main obstacle to the war against corruption in the country. This is not correct. If the courts are guilty, they are not as guilty as the State agencies for investigation and prosecution.
This is a country that is not interested in statistics. Otherwise, let the Police, EFCC, ICPC, Customs and Excise, NDLEA, DSS, publicly disclose how many corruption related complaints each received in the last four years, and also how many of the complaints that were investigated and concluded, how many that were dropped and why, and how many that were taken to Court, the state of each of the cases that were charged to Court and for those concluded, the verdicts and the reasons for each verdict.
We should know that the Court is one of the legs, though an important leg, in the administration of criminal justice in the country. There are other important legs. The Court is like a clearing house. In discharging its duties, it is expected to follow law and base its decision on the facts and documents presented before it. What will the Court do, if a case is poorly prepared or presented, or compromised by the investigators or the prosecutors? To step into the arena? It is not possible.
This is not to say that there are no corrupt judges. Far from this. The point I am making is that all the blames should not be heaped on the Court and the legal profession. By the Constitution, a person is presumed innocent until his or her guilty is proved. So, a person standing trial for a corruption related case is in the eyes of the law innocent, and will be called corrupt if so found after trial by, not just by a Court, but a court of competent jurisdiction. If the law says he or she is innocent, why should the lawyer not defend him or her, if the lawyer chooses to? Whether to defend or not to defend any client is discretionary and individual. There cannot be a rule or directive on this, it will derogate from the Constitution.
The issue of the “ability to manipulate and frustrate the legal system” by the corrupt is possible because the process of appointment and elevation in the judiciary have been bastardised, ethnicized and politicized. You cannot build something on nothing. If the process of appointment and elevation are made transparent and just, then our expectations will get bigger. The federal government, in the spirit of change, should cause a review of the process of appointment and elevation in the judiciary, stipulate clear and definite parameters or conditions for appointment and promotion of judicial officers in the country? This will help the country. Also, the public should be involved by way of being encouraged to send on oath petitions on nominated persons for judicial appointments to avoid frivolous petitions as we are now in search of judicial integrity. The mastery of the law or the power to write eloquently are important but should be in addition to the person’s standing.
The lane I am driving into is that the situation calls for reforms and unblundling, in some cases, of important departments of government, especially our law enforcement agencies. Recently, I sent an alert to the Facebook account of a State Police headquarters concerning a citizen arrested at about 8pm in respect of property dispute that is, even, in Court. You can’t believe this, it took about two weeks or more for the Police to reply. When it replied, I was asked to come to give details when the complaint was clear and against a section in that headquarters There was no attempt to investigate my complaint. It shows that the account is not being checked or the officer in charge uses his or her money to maintain the account The federal government should step up its game in fixing the country’s law enforcement agencies in terms of conditions of service, facilities, expertise, patriotism and diligence. Let me also pose this question: what percentage of the members of the Nigeria Police Force do you think is computer literate? So, even to type investigation report, it has to be done by someone. Time is lost and can cause leakage of reports. How many photocopier do you think each State headquarters has? They need tools to work too. How many are internet literate too?
In all, I submit that the courts, no doubt, have their shortcomings and blames, but not all the shortcomings or faults or blames in the poor administration of criminal justice in the country. All the blames should not be heaped on the judiciary and the legal profession. We should admit that there is a general rot in the administration of criminal justice pipe. The rot is, however, more in investigation and prosecution.
Good morning, good people of Nigeria.
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