Also published in Daily Trust
As President-elect, Muhammadu Buhari prepares
to assume the presidency in a few weeks’ time, many Nigerians increasingly
expect him to launch exhaustive probes into particularly the most staggering
cases of corruption involving some top current and former government officials
and subject them to appropriate judicial prosecution processes to be convicted
hence compelled to return the public resources they misappropriated and
eventually face appropriate punishments accordingly.
Nigerians have rightly emphasized the
imperative of extensive corruption probe as the only means to expose and
eventually stop the persistent acts of systematic thievery and misappropriation
of public resources in the country. They therefore now apparently count on
Buhari’s intolerance of corruption and credibility to see that happen. This is
even though his responses to the various questions of whether or not he will
take these steps have so far been largely too ambiguous to provide a definite
answer.
However, despite the sheer magnitude of the
devastating effects of the endemic corruption that has bedevilled the country
for decades, many other Nigerians are worried that the time is too short for
Buhari to ‘waste’ in corruption probe, and that he should instead focus on
corruption prevention and eradication as well as fixing and improving the
country’s tattered economy. According to them also, prosecuting corrupt
officials would simply distract and hamper his efforts to deliver on his
campaign promises.
They also argue that, Nigerians were hugely
disappointed by the outcome of the successive governments’ corruption probes
into many cases of corrupt practices, most, if not all, of which however turned
out to be politically motivated witch-hunts against some real or perceived
political opponents. Moreover, the recovered funds and assets simply ended up
in the possession of some other corrupt officials or their cronies,
consequently they (i.e. those Nigerians) simply lost confidence in such probes
altogether.
Anyway, while Buhari may indeed launch
corruption probe, he will definitely face tricky moral, logistical and
procedural dilemmas in determining its scope and the extent it should go as
well as the years and/or the regimes and administrations it should cover.
For instance, though the outgoing
administration of President Goodluck Jonathan is arguably the most corrupt in
the history of Nigeria, yet singling it out for probe, as some Nigerians
demand, negates the principles of fairness, since the previous military regimes
and civilian administrations were equally extremely corrupt. In the meantime
however, it is practically impossible to simultaneously launch probes into all
cases of corruption committed in the previous administrations in the country.
In the same vein also, the endemic culture of
corruption that has pervaded the country makes it equally impossible to
prosecute everybody suspected or even actually involved in corruption, which
raises questions over the yardsticks to be adopted on the bases of which
individuals could be subjected to corruption investigation for eventual
prosecution. This is especially considering the fact that many individuals who
would probably be investigated, or rather who should in fact be investigated;
have over the decades become effectively too influential to be successfully
subjected to any corruption probe in the country.
Meanwhile, many other potential targets will
soon assume influential political positions, which make it legally impossible
to prosecute them i.e. state governorship that entitles state governors to
immunity against any form of judicial prosecution while in office. Moreover,
many other potential targets will equally soon assume legislative positions and
other influential political appointments, which they can simply exploit to
evade justice and get away with whatever corruption they committed in the past.
Furthermore, the practical impossibility of
probing into every single case of corruption committed in the country
highlights yet another dilemma over the guidelines to be adopted in determining
the monetary value involved in a corruption case that is considered big enough
to attract corruption probe.
Obviously, these and perhaps many other
challenges do indeed constitute multifaceted dilemmas that must not be ignored
in addressing this issue. Muhammadu Buhari also can’t afford to ignore them
either, because as a matter of fact, failure to address them would definitely
undermine the effectiveness and credibility of the process and indeed render it
largely ineffective like the other previous corruption probes launched by the
successive military and civilian regimes in the country.
Nevertheless, despite these challenges and
dilemmas, conducting thorough corruption probes remains indispensible in the
process of effective and sustainable fight against corruption. After all, it is
hoped that the corruption probe that Buhari is expected to launch would be the
last of its kind in the country, because, God willing, there will be no room
for systematic thievery of such magnitude anymore.
This therefore underscores the imperative of
drawing a comprehensive corruption probe strategy that takes such dilemmas into
consideration and addresses them accordingly, to ensure that the probes
eventually yield the desired results.
To achieve this, all relevant anti corruption,
law enforcement agencies and judicial institutions should jointly come up with
clear, objective and realistic guidelines to adopt in sorting out and
determining the corruption cases to probe into and the suspects to target. They
should also come up with an efficient logistical framework solely dedicated to
this exercise to accelerate it without prejudice to the quality and
transparency of the process.
The National Assembly should also address all
legal and constitutional loopholes that can be exploited in order to obstruct
the process, also without prejudice to the basic rights of individuals.
No comments:
Post a Comment