No sane Nigerian opposes, should oppose, the very crucial fight against the corruption monster ravaging our nation. Indeed, every Nigerian who voted for the president must have had the issue of eradicating corruption as one of the key motivations for giving President Buhari and the APC his or her vote. The fight against the corruption cankerworm ought to have started since yesterday, so to speak but it is better late than not at all, as they say.
The fact that most facets of our national life – the economy being at the head of it all – are not working or picking up has been rightly attributed to the corruption rage. So, the fight the government of today promises, and has begun, to wage it is salutary and welcome. The president’s recent visit to the United States of America is producing results in that direction. What, however, needs to be properly addressed is the manner the war should and should not be waged, in a democratic social order.
Many years ago, specifically during the regime of Chief Aremu Olusegun Obasanjo (yes regime is a proper definition of the reign of OBJ with all its conscious oversteps of democratic norms!); we fought a most unorthodox battle against corruption. One horrifying example of this was the sight of beefy and mammoth former IG of police, Tafa Balogun alighting, with manacled hands, from the back of a Black Maria, literally dragged on the ground to the court! In the end, after all the dramatic process of his trial, he got away with a wimperish verdict.
Wherever Balogun is now, rolling in his loot, and permanently smiling to the bank to feed his venomous appetite, he must be wondering why all that show of scandalising brutality in getting him to such a light judgment. Many discerning minds were delighted that he was hooked, but most people wondered why the perceived Messianic Ribadu had to take his boss though that horrible process. Some wickedly attributed it to settling an old score!
Another very dramatic, even theatrical scene was the costuming episode of Alams, as OBJ used to simply shorten the endlessly tongue- twisting name of Diepriye Alamieseigha, Jonathan’s well revered mentor. In the end, after all the trial razzmatazz, Alams got off alarmingly with only a little bruise to his mighty ago – a mere two years jail term, most of which he had already spent during the trial process! He lives on a revered and nearly deified hero in the Ijaw creeks!
What is the lesson from the past, as narrated above? We must fight corruption, all the way because we need to move this huge elephant of a nation rapidly forward. And corruption stands, monstrously, on the way. Yet, in doing so, we need to take into cognisance, the tenets and expectations of a civilised democratic society such as we hope to build and one which constantly eluded us in the past and threatens to further elude us, if we don’t watch our steps.
In those two cases above, we experienced horror where we should sigh a huge relief at the end of trials. We stood scandalised where we should relish fulfillment of justice, post-trial. The tactics and strategies employed to foist justice against crime and criminality were largely unacceptable in a modern democracy where there is rule of law. The way we carried on in a military oligarchy – house arrests, rough tactics, uncouth tackles, brutal handling of untried people – people who should remain innocent until proved otherwise – diminishes the rule of law and undermines our democracy.
In recent times, we have re-invigorated our campaign against corruption and the war to bring thieves and looters to justice is rife. The whole nation is behind the government in this renewed anti-corruption battle. But we must not leave any room for untoward motive imputation or believable insinuation through the hows of waging this justified war of releasing our nation from the strangle-hold of corruption and its perpetrators among us, no matter how highly- placed. Yet, we must do so without invoking either fear or pity – tragic tenets – where we should get unbiased justice through untainted democratic process.
Two cases will be cited here and it should suffice to illustrate how we must not allow off-handed approach to the fight demean the purpose. The examples of the former Governor of Jigawa State, Sule Lamido and Sambo Dasuki, the former National Security Adviser, leap to the fore. Sule Lamido and his two sons were arrested and clamped in the cell. It was on the eve of the Ramadan, and by some twist of judgment, they were not granted bail and would not be until weeks later when the courts would be back on judiciary duties. The implication was that they would spend Ramadan, not in detention, but in prison, obviously pre-trial.
By some luck and intriguing smartness, they got some judge who found their offence bail-able and got them the bail. This process raises a lot of misgivings in the nation. This is not merely on account of the stature of the man as a top politician in the country, one who was/is seen as a presidential hopeful. Heavens forbid sacred-cowism being meted out to any kleptocrat or fraudster – no matter how highly placed. Indeed, it is such people who should be models of virtue and rectitude, and who debase themselves to the stable of corruption that must be properly visited with the hand of the law and made veritable examples for the rest of us – not to emulate.
It is the manner in which the case was being handled which leaves room for suspicion as to the totality of altruism in the manner of processing. Lamido has himself, fingered political motivation for his arrest and there are many who will give him the benefit of the doubt – in spite of the possibilities that hang around his culpability, when and if the case is judiciously and lawfully pursued and concluded.
The other example that I wish to highlight is the case of Sambo Dasuki. Here was the immediate past National Security Adviser, who is being suspected for treasonable felony and corruption. Grave crimes! Again, how were these possible offences being pursued? His house was laid siege upon, his property impounded, including his international passport, his father’s house in Sokoto ransacked, and so on. He was allegedly held virtually under house arrest for nearly a day. His intention to go to the mosque on the day of Ramadan was thwarted.
All these dramatic scenes were carried out before he was properly shown a warrant of arrest, properly charged and formally invited for questioning and subsequent possible prosecution. These series of actions which violate due legal process leave much to be desired and give room and space for insinuations and proposition of vendetta, which may not have been the case.
There are suggestions from some quarters that trace these actions to vengefulness arising from the presidency – suggestions that many years back, in 1985, Dasuki led the team of soldiers to Buhari’s house and committed him to house arrest, after which many unfortunate events happened to him, including the death of his father who he was not allowed to bury. Dasuki’s father is being hospitalised and his passport was seized, with the possibility that he may not be able to visit his seek father abroad. All of these may be the impudent actions of some overzealous men of the security agencies who may have read sinister meanings into the desires and wishes of their principals.
Now, nobody should be able to believe that President Buhari, with the kind of lofty, noble and historical leadership responsibilities on his hand would descend to the lowest depths of vengeance-seeking such that produced those mean actions by some security personnel were alleged to have taken place in Dasuki’s house!
These are very interesting and exciting times in which there is so much hope in the air that Nigeria may soar in image, with the possibilities of a boosted economy and rise in the nation’s development profile. It is also a time in which the moral tone of the leadership of the country will rob on the rest of the populace. This is a wrong time to send signals of a kangaroo system, capable of miscarrying justice, especially justice that must be meted on corrupt people who have helped to wreck the lofty dreams of becoming in this potentially great country!
