…the circumstances of this case are not consistent with the thrust of the minister’s resignation letter. And nearly always, the absence of remorse is requisite for attaching punitive conditions to infractions of the law. In this case the requirements of justice go way beyond a need for restitution and propriety.
“Ignorance of the law is no excuse”! Most Nigerians who have been stopped at one of the ubiquitous police checkpoints that adorn our inner-city roads and from whom the police requested a check for “particulars”, only to find that one of these had expired, will admit having had these words barked at them. It is especially mortifying when the expiry date on the document in question was only yesterday; and the mental note to self to fix it got buried under a pile of other important chores. In a sense, this latter possibility must be the reason why the law, we are told, allows a moratorium on enforcement against a person thus culpable, immediately on expiry of some of these documents.
But, offence, it is all the same. For the whole point of this legal principle (whose roots go all the way back to the Bible’s insistence (Leviticus 5:17) that “…if a soul sin, and commits any of these things which are forbidden to be done by the commandments of the Lord; though he knows it not, yet is he guilty, and shall bear his iniquity.”) is to make it difficult, if not outright impossible for any rule-breaker simply to claim ignorance in order to avoid censure. Even though it is well nigh impossible for the most law abiding, non-lawyer, citizen to be familiar with all the laws of the land. The full extent of the intent to break the law is then one that must be tested in the courts. The outcome of which will depend largely on the circumstances of each case, and (regrettably) the relative competence of the respective counsels.
Almost inevitably, the plea will be to “temper justice with mercy”.
In the unusual case of the now ex-finance minister of the federation, Mrs. Kemi Adeosun, accused by this newspaper of having forged one of the documents, without which she ordinarily cannot work in the country, and who only resigned last week (acknowledging the more important of the charges), not a few commentators have run the full gamut of the preceding narrative. And some of the seconds arguing out of the former minister’s corner do have a point. For justice is not the same as the punitive sentences that the law courts nearly often dispense. These punishments only exist to ensure that others are dissuaded from the infringements of the law that the convicted felon was charged with. Further, this need to prevent recidivism or copycat behaviour is important only because serial offending threatens the very fabric of society. We are “just”, only when we do proper things, properly.
Question is, on this matter, did Mrs. Kemi Adeosun do anything proper in the right way?
Our honourable minister simply chose to go down the “it was the Devil’s route”. Not, interestingly, in the sense in which Lucifer misled her, as he is wont to do with most common local felons. But in the sense in which most of her associates in her first years of returning to the country from the United Kingdom were minions of the Dark Lord himself…
Most of the arguments for a more lenient consideration of Mrs. Adeosun’s crime (for a crime, it is), point to her letter of resignation — not your traditional mea culpa, to begin with — where blame is lavishly ladled on her associates, and the National Youth Service Corps (NYSC). In shock she maybe. But sorry she is evidently not. Her letter to the president evinces scant remorse for the distraction her saga has been for the Nigerian people (and the Buhari government in particular) over the past couple of months. Nor for the inconveniences now suffered by many of her unappointed advocates who, because of their belief in her, went on a verbal rampage against those who had earlier invited her to resign. No do we find in her, thoughts for the fact that the more decent amongst these latter number will now have to apologise to their dissenting company.
No!
Our honourable minister simply chose to go down the “it was the Devil’s route”. Not, interestingly, in the sense in which Lucifer misled her, as he is wont to do with most common local felons. But in the sense in which most of her associates in her first years of returning to the country from the United Kingdom were minions of the Dark Lord himself — partial to besmirching innocent pilgrims. Given, however, that this newspaper is rumoured to have stumbled on the fact that her NYSC papers were forged while trying to unravel the reasons for several unusual payments from her ministry to the National Assembly, it is a fair bet that the honourable minister continued her alliance with the dark side well into her stay in the ministry.
In other words, the circumstances of this case are not consistent with the thrust of the minister’s resignation letter. And nearly always, the absence of remorse is requisite for attaching punitive conditions to infractions of the law. In this case the requirements of justice go way beyond a need for restitution and propriety. They now include the need to ensure that our people are protected from those who would wantonly violate the shared values without which we all cease to be human.
Uddin Ifeanyi, journalist manqué and retired civil servant, can be reached @IfeanyiUddin.
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