The financial malfeasance in Nigeria’s public sector is not limited to the executive and legislative arms of government, and public corporations. In fact, it seems to be aided and abetted by the corruption in the judiciary. Majority of high profile corruption cases that reach the doorsteps of the judiciary are stalled along the line. Some suspects receive only a slap on the wrist, getting away with ridiculous fines after being convicted of theft of humungous sums of public funds. There are a few instances of suspects receiving perpetual injunctions from investigation and prosecution! Invariably, there is no deterrence for peculation in the public sector. Many public servants, especially political office holders, purloin public fund and then deploy the same to secure greater political advantage and escape from the arm of the law or judicial conviction!
Rtd. General Ishola Williams, a former Chairman of Transparency International in Nigeria, said openly that “All the judges are just using the election tribunals to make money. All those who had gone through election tribunals are millionaires today. I challenge any one of them to say no.” (Sunday Independent, March 14, 2010.)
“Indisputably, allegations of corruption have saturated the atmosphere of election proceedings in Nigeria. Judges have been accused of directly or indirectly working hand in glove with some of the parties to the disputes and lawyers representing them. Indeed, the magnitude of contradictory and utterly ludicrous pronouncements that have emanated from our election tribunals would seem to lend credence to the charge of corruption now besetting the judiciary… A failed judiciary, we submit, is a sign post of a failed nation.” (Leading article of the Daily Independent, March 26, 2010.)
According to a foremost Justice of the Supreme Court, the late Justice Kayode Eso, “In Election Petition matters, just in a twinkle of an eye, some Judges become millionaires. In fact, those of us who have passed through the yoke of being Judges, what we hear outside shatters us, because they are not just millionaires; as we are told, they are billionaires. I want to seize this opportunity to appeal to the CJN not to keep quiet about this indictment. It is easy to say we should wave it aside, but I think we should not. A panel should be set up to find out what is going on in Election Petitions Tribunals.” (The Nation, June 20, 2010.)
“We are persuaded that majority of these injunctions are influenced more by corrupt acts than genuine desire on the part of the judges to deliver justice to the parties concerned. Election suits in Nigeria appear to have become a goldmine for corrupt judges.” (Leading article of the Daily Independent, February 20, 2011.)
A system that turns hitherto impecunious politicians into emergency billionaires upon acquisition of political power can only promote desperation and increase financial haemorrhage in the public sector.
The 1999 Constitution of the Federal Republic of Nigeria declares emphatically in Section 15 (5) that “The State shall abolish all corrupt practices and abuse of power.”
The ease with which government funds move from the public exchequer to private pockets in Nigeria is alarming and mindboggling.
There are sufficient provisions in the laws of the federation to extirpate the root of corrupt practices from our body politic. We have the Public Procurement Act, Code of Conduct Bureau and Tribunal Act, Money Laundering (Prevention and Prohibition) Act, The Criminal Code Act, Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC) Act, the Independent Corrupt Practices and Other Related Offences Act, among others. However, in most cases, these laws are observed in breach.
The unremitting financial haemorrhage in the public sector is a product of impunity. The current administration appears to have set the right tone with regards to the on-going financial scandals in the Ministry of Humanitarian Affairs. In order to halt the unrelenting defalcation in the public sector, “(a) harness the resources of the nation and promote national prosperity and an efficient, a dynamic and self-reliant economy; (b) control the national economy in such manner as to secure the maximum welfare, freedom and happiness of every citizen on the basis of social justice and equality of status and opportunity…,” as provided in Section 16 of the 1999 Constitution, the full weight of the law must fall on every infraction, no matter whose ox gored.
The Nigerian public sector and public servants must be guided at all times by due process, the rule of law and constitutionalism.
Credit to Independent.Ng