 |
| National Assembly (Nigeria) |
Honestly I'm not about to roll out my drums to celebrate the recent conviction of former Governor of Adamawa State, Bala James Ngilari for my dissatisfaction with the manner the presiding judge lavished his 'discretion' on the culprit after establishing guilt satisfactorily. As it turned out, Ngilari got away with less than a slap on the wrist.
I'm pissed that the judge used his discretion to sentence Ngilari to only 5 years imprisonment rather than the maximum of 25 years provision made for the heinous crime he committed. Gladly the provision came without an option of fine, Ngilari would have been a free man by now.
I'm doubly pissed that the judge gave Ngilari the option of choosing the jail he would serve his sentence. I don't know if this is another discretion allowed judges as it's the first time I'm hearing of convicts being given such an option. Far as I know, convicts are 'government properties' striped of most rights; actually that's an aspect of the punitive objective of sending people to jail.
Sure, most Nigerians prayed for a more punitive sentence that would clearly spell out the wrongness of abusing public trust via public offices while putting a distinct line between small thieves and pickpockets who survive on 'subsistence stealing' and heavyweight pen robbers like Ngilari who steal compulsively even when it's absolutely unnecessary.
This judgement truly put to question the logic of lavish discretionary powers at the disposal of judges to play with. No doubt our statutes are obsolete and urgently requires being updated to match the arrogant and inhuman impunity of our leaders. Punitive laws are scripted to serve as a deterrent and a guide to others to function properly in a communal set up. This would be lost if punitive laws turns out a legitimate means of laundering ill-gotten wealth. In a country where honest and hardworking citizens struggles to survive with a N18,000 minimum wage, majority will take the option of stealing a quarter of what Ngilari stole for a 5 year jail sentence whether it comes with the option of fine or not.
Even more important, it shouldn't be lost to us that no nation achieve greatness on crude terms like this. China is not functional and inching forward by the day because it wears kid's glove when entering the ring with agents of corruption. It's growing because it's fighting corruption with the needed attitude and seriousness it deserves.
In China people like Ngilari are tied to the stakes and shot to death and, inhuman as it may sound, the cost of the bullet is justifiably an expenditure for the convict's family to bear. We envy Ghana today only because it was able to subdue sentiments kick corruption in the right place and with the required force needed to send shockwaves across the country and reset the moral attitude of the people. In Iran there's no sacred cow and punishments comes in equal measure. The rope that hangs a pauper today may hang a billionaire prince tomorrow. That's the attitude needed to stamp out corruption and kickstart the process of building a nation of our dream.
It's quite a good thing that untouchable and revered crooks are beginning to answer their names today. However, we it may take while before we get to our destination going by this speed and attitude. Unless this is just a warm up to better days ahead in he war against corruption, we may as well kiss our dream of a functional nation goodbye. We have a willing president whose attitude to corruption and his qualification to fight it are legendary and a stuff for history books. We can't afford to miss this opportunity by misusing windows in our judicial system just to be lenient to deadly criminals.
It should be noted that judicial leniency have a tendency of sending wrong signals that may encourage dormant criminals and spur them into action while emboldening those already active. Perhaps, it's the leniency of the Nigerian system that emboldens James Andrew who was recently busted and billions of Naira reasonably assumed to be illicit proceeds of corruption linked to him discovered in his brother's house, to approach a court to demand the money back on the pretext that it was 'gifted' to him by a friend. In a more serious scenario, Yakubu would be jumping from one court to another trying to distance himself from he discovered money. In Nigeria, he's still fighting for what he programmed himself to believe was manna from heaven. We need to do a lot better. Beside, for justice to be done, it must seen to be done and, for anti corruption laws to be effective they must be seen to be punitive!
Maiwada Dammallam
7th March 2017
No comments:
Post a Comment