It goes without saying that the judiciary is central to the success of the anti-corruption war. To win the war, the judiciary must ensure that corruption cases are speedily disposed and justice dispensed without fear or favour, affection or ill-will. But many believe that the judiciary does not appreciate the enormity of the problem at hand. The judiciary, they claim, does not see the war as one that it should join the larger society in waging.
Those who talk like this may have a point because of certain developments in the not too distant past. Then the judiciary seemed to have subtly backed those accused of corruption with the way some judges handled the cases before them. They gave judgement which many never believed could emanate from the Bench. The public wondered if it was not the same judiciary that did not bat an eyelid before sentencing small time criminals, such as, pickpockets and pepper thieves to long term imprisonment that was treating those who stole the nation blind with kid gloves.
For instance, former Delta State Governor James Ibori was cleared of the charge against him on technical ground by a judge, who held that he should have been tried in Asaba, the capital, and not in Kaduna, where he was docked. His Lordship forgot that corruption, unlike courts, cares less about jurisdiction. Corruption does not also have any shade of colour. What is corruption in Asaba is also corruption in Lagos or any other part of the country for that matter. To throw out a corruption case on the ground of jurisdiction is unfair to Nigerians whose commonwealth many of our leaders have pillaged over the years.
If our judges are ready to close their eyes to corruption on the ground of jurisdiction, their British counterparts are not ready to do so. They taught us a big lesson by sending the same Ibori to jail for the same offence, thereby turning us into a laughing stock in the comity of nations. From also the judiciary, former Governor Lucky Igbinedion walked away with a slap on the wrist for running Edo State like his family empire. He was fined N3 million after being found guilty of corrupt enrichment. The money involved ran into billions of naira. And without breaking a sweat, he dipped his hand into his back pocket and whipped out the fine. Just like that!
Is that how to fight corruption? Many Nigerians strongly believe that is not how to prosecute the war. They are calling for a proactive judiciary that will treat such cases with the diligence and promptness they deserve. Judges believe they are not to blame for the tardiness in handling corruption cases, claiming that they are only interpreting the law as it is in the statute. But do we have two sets of law – one for the low and another for the mighty? Or a uniform law, which does not recognise status like the scale of justice, which is a blindfolded damsel, wielding a sword? The scale of justice portrays that justice is blind; that it does not know class, but will only do what is just and right, no matter whose ox is gored.
Many of our judges have not upheld the scale of justice, hence the public clamour for a more vibrant and activist judiciary, which will not compromise under any circumstance. A judiciary that will look corruption in the face and call it by its name and not dress it up in fanciful words or accuse the police and the prosecution of not doing their jobs well before coming to court. In many instances, it was found that some judges hide under such false accusations to throw out cases which otherwise should have gone into trial and convictions secured by the prosecution.
Corruption will never keep quiet. It will, as Nobel laureate Prof Wole Soyinka said, fight back. And the corrupt will fight with all they have in order to keep all they have stolen. It is for the judiciary to ensure that the corrupt do not enjoy their ill-gotten wealth after leaving office. The place of the court in the anti-graft crusade cannot be wished away as the Nigerian Head of Information Centre of the Inter-Governmental Action Group against Money Laundering in West Africa (GIABA), Mr Timothy Melaye, observed in an interview in this paper on Monday: ‘’If you asked me to return one naira and I returned one naira, there is no court that has said I committed a crime; so it is probable discussion between private or public people. What I would say would be of interest is effective prosecution and securing conviction based on court judgements, then we can now say fine this is a case established by a court’’.
As we all know, it is only the courts that can convict for any offence. If it were otherwise, there would be less noise today over the judiciary’s handling of corruption cases. President Muhammadu Buhari is so worried that the judiciary is not giving his administration the needed support in fighting corruption that he took his case to the global arena last Sunday during his visit to Addis Ababa for the African Union (AU) Summit. At a town hall meeting with Nigerians living in Ethiopia, the president said: ‘’On the fight against corruption vis-a-vis the judiciary, Nigerians will be right to say that is my main headache for now’’.
The president was only expressing the popular feeling about the judiciary’s role in the anti-corruption campaign. But the judiciary may not agree with this popular sentiment, which may be why Chief Justice Mahmud Mohammed on Tuesday in Abuja posited that the three arms of government must come together to fight corruption and related crimes. ‘’Stakeholders in the justice sector’’, he said, ‘’must work in tandem towards a common objective as a chain is only as strong as its weakest link. I believe that if we work in harmony and in sincerity of purpose towards concrete outcomes, then, the efforts that we make will doubtless create a butterfly effect of positive change that is sorely required in the justice sector’’.
That may be true, but the judiciary remains central to the anti-graft campaign’s success. And it can only discharge this duty honorably if it remains above board in the handling of corruption cases. So far, the people believe it has not lived up to expectation. It is not too late for the judiciary to redeem its image in the next phase of the anti-graft war.
NATION
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