In a judgment that though sounded uncommon but which is thought by many to be an effective way of dealing with indiscipline among Nigerians, a senior magistrate court in Gwagwalada, FCT, on Tuesday November 5, 2024 ordered a 22-year-old man, Samson Sunday, to wash all the toilets in the University of Abuja Teaching Hospital for 10 days.
Sunday, who resides in Angwan dodo area of Gwagwalada, was convicted and sentenced for criminal breach of trust and cheating. He pleaded with the court for forgiveness; adding that it would not happen again. However, senior magistrate Nuhu Tukur ordered the correctional officers to supervise Sunday to ensure that he completes the sentence; warning him to desist from cheating and committing crimes.
Earlier, the prosecution counsel, Abdullahi Tanko, told the court that the complainant, Okoro Chinaza of Gwagwalada, Abuja reported the matter at the Gwagwalada police station on October 29, 2024. Tanko said the convict went to the complainant’s barbing salon for haircut and refused, after he had had his hair cut, to pay N27,000 for the services rendered to him. He said the offence contravened the provisions of Sections 312 and 322 of the Penal Code.
Sunday is not the first to receive non-custodial category of sentence in a court. In July 2021, a 21-year-old student, Innocent Destiny, who attempted to cheat male clients on WeChat, was ordered by an FCT high court to wash toilets at Mpape motor park for 60 days. Justice Kezziah Ogbonnaya, thus, ordered the prison officers to provide a register for Destiny to sign in daily for the 60 days after which he would be allowed to go home. The presiding judge warned him to be of good behavior; adding that being young or poor was not a license to cheat others. While the defense counsel, Holy Nuhu, had prayed the court to temper justice with mercy, the prosecuting counsel, Ijeabalum Diribe told the court that Destiny fraudulently induced male clients on WeChat in order for them to part with their money. She said the offence contravened the provisions of Section 322 of the Penal Code.
Four months before Destiny’s conviction in 2021, a customary court in Ile-Tuntun, Ibadan, Oyo state, ordered a man, Jimoh Falola, to wash public toilets for 30 days for shouting rudely inside the court-room. Falola’s estranged wife, Opeyemi, had filed a divorce suit against him at the court. After Falola failed to appear during two earlier sittings, he finally showed up and accused the court workers of receiving money from his wife to “favour her.” On top of this allegation, Falola shouted on the top of his voice while the court was sitting. In a ruling, the president of the court, Henry Agbaje, held that Falola had no regard for constituted authority; going by the way he insulted the court. Agbaje consequently ordered Falola to embark on a 30-day community service that include clearing the bush, sweeping the road, and washing of public toilets.
The offences committed in all the three separate cases (refusing to pay for services rendered, cheating innocent citizens, and shouting in a court-room) are forms of indiscipline. No sentences could have deterred this group of rude and ill-mannered offenders more than the isolated judgements in which they were ordered by different judges in different courts to wash toilets. Jail terms no longer dissuade lawbreakers from engaging in acts of misconduct and crimes. Why? Because the stigma that haunted convicts in traditional African societies in the past is contrarily perceived today by our value-eroded civilizations. For well-off criminals, a ruling with an option of fine makes their day.
But as long as an individual’s conscience remains alive, public humiliation could still have psychological impact on him; a function which the washing of public toilets ordered by courts seeks to accomplish. In the pre-colonial days of northern Nigeria, sweeping of the market square, clearing of public refuse dump sites, and sweeping of major township streets were some of the non-custodial sentences used by the Alkali courts under the then native authorities to deal with acts of indiscipline and corruption because public disgrace was the last thing anyone, at that time, would wish to experience in life.
Nigeria’s greatest problem is indiscipline; because corruption which most Nigerians think is our greatest challenge is, indeed, a consequence of indiscipline. If many Nigerian judges were like magistrate Nuhu Tukur whose judgment recently sentenced Samson Sunday to wash public toilets in Gwagwalada, corruption and general indiscipline among Nigerians may not have reached its current deep-seated level. With no option of fines, if Nigerian courts would ask public officers (as executives or legislators) convicted on corruption charges to, for instance, sweep Julius Barger roundabout in Abuja and its adjoining streets for 90 days; or clear all the refuse collection drums at Jabi motor park in Abuja for 60 days, or sweep the AYA motor park in Nyanya, Abuja for 90 days; today’s brazen embezzlement of public funds could possibly reduce to a tolerable level.
The incidence of cases reaching the supreme court may also reduce. Besides reducing prisons congestion, the resort to non-custodial sentences particularly for persons convicted over economic and financial crimes could, this way too, tame corruption in Nigeria. May Allah inspire, strengthen and support Nigerian judges to deliver on their mandate, amin.
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