The non-fight against corruption

• Written by Editor

FOR those who say Nigeria is a country where wonders shall never end, a new example is the dropping of the nine-count charge preferred against Mohammed Abacha, son of the late head of state, Sani Abacha. The reasons for dropping those charges are unacceptable, even if they seem expedient, as they mock Nigeria and all her pretences to fighting corruption. 

  Mohammed Abacha had, inter alia, been charged with unlawfully receiving about N446.3 billion allegedly stolen from government’s coffers between 1995 and 1998. No thanks to the power of nolle prosequi conferred on the Attorney General of the Federation by the 1999 Constitution; he has now exercised that power to save Abacha in clearly undeserving, unusual, unpatriotic, and ill-suited circumstances. The withdrawal of those charges is as bizarre as the reason proffered for doing so. Nigeria has thus been reduced by certain desperation to a state of anomie, where indecency, impunity and absurdity reign supreme.

   Defending the withdrawal of the charges, the Attorney General of the federation, Mohammed Adoke, said through his press secretary that the withdrawal would facilitate the recovery of $380 million from the Luxembourg proceedings and another $550 million from forfeiture proceedings by the US Department of Justice. Besides, he said the Abacha family had pledged to cooperate fully in the recovery proceedings; government had achieved the key objective of depriving the criminal of the proceeds of crime; and that in any event, the case has lingered for over 16 years.

   These reasons, given after public outcry on the withdrawal, are merely face-saving and self-serving. It is wrong to sacrifice the justice of one case on the altar of another. The state should not woo, or be seen to be patronising the family of the accused in order to seek their cooperation to recover public fund. And the issue of punishment is crucial, as a deterrent factor to would-be-looters of state treasury and their cohorts. 

   To give the facade of a civilised nation, it is fashionable for the country to adopt laws which make other nations function and rise above medieval values, norms and precepts. However, laws designed to produce certain consequences, time-tested to ensure good governance, good behaviour, and the creation of a just, peaceful and orderly society, seem to work the opposite in Nigeria. The laws that serve public purposes and the ends of justice in the countries from where they were inherited are twisted to work against public interest. Nolle prosequi as a constitutional prescription should serve no less than public interest, the best end of justice in its objective and untainted form. This is explicitly stated in Section 174(3) of the 1999 Constitution, which admonishes that “in exercising his powers under this section, the Attorney General of the Federation shall have regard to the public interest, the interest of justice and the need to prevent abuse of legal process.” This is not different from what obtains in other civilised democracies; what is different is the attitude and character of those endowed with such powers. Here, Nigerians have seen the worst of what it could be used for – a means of oiling the machinery of evil, fraud, corruption, brigandage, lawlessness and a bargaining power for electoral success. While other nations are using state powers to force their leaders to account for the misdeed of the past, in particular corruption in office, as it happened in Israel in the case of Ehud Olmert, Egypt in the case of Hosni Mubarak and Thailand in the case of former prime minister, Thaksin Shinawatra, Nigeria on her part deploys state powers to help criminals of repute get away with horrendous act against the country and humanity generally at the altar of political expediency. This seems to be the logic that culminated in the unconscionable withdrawal of charges by the Federal Attorney General and the discharge of Mohammed Abacha by the court. Nigeria’s public officials should regard the powers given to them by the constitution of Nigeria as sacrosanct and for that reason show utmost sense of responsibility in the way they are deployed. They should resist the temptation to sacrifice common good for self-preservation or personal good or objective. Intense individualism should give way to statesmanship and public good. In all of these, Nigerians who are traumatised by lack in every area, who contend with decrepit infrastructure and groan under the yoke of poverty are the ultimate losers. Their craving for a nation where peace and justice reign has become a mirage. The development is a sad commentary on due process of law, administration of criminal justice and the fight against corruption in Nigeria in addition to being the shame of a nation. The Minister of Finance, Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala, should never have lent her weight to such a melodrama and craftiness that would readily serve as an apostle of such an infamy. Government’s explanation flies in the face of the Supreme Court’s ruling dismissing Abacha’s no case submission, meaning that a prima facie case had been established against him by the prosecution, nay the state, requiring that he defended himself. The withdrawal of that case in the face of the Supreme Court’s ruling, therefore, is no more than a soft landing for Abacha, in furtherance of a growing tendency of this government to provide safe haven for criminals and enemies of state as part of countdown to the 2015 elections.

    It is also a pity that well-meaning Nigerians merely watch in bewilderment as this malaise gather momentum, forgetting that the price they pay for this is good governance. What times like this require are virile civil society organisations, a dynamic citizenry, a vocal populace and a Nigerian Bar Association that is up and doing, insulated from partisan politics and bold enough to decry audacious exercise of powers.  Nigerians cannot afford to be guilty of conspiracy of silence, mute indifference and cold complicity which their silence would suggest should they continue to ignore these humongous travesties of justice without a modicum of decorous protest. But Nigerians may be silent, they are not hoodwinked or persuaded by fairy tales or the shenanigan of a government determined to remain in power regardless of the damage this may occasion to the soul of the nation and the psyche of its people. Let every corrupt leader or person who enjoys government’s protection today, however, know that the days of reckoning are inevitable, after all.