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Tag: Anti-corruption

  • Still on a successful Buhari anti-corruption war

    Still on a successful Buhari anti-corruption war

    If the National Assembly, expected to be the bulwark of the government, could be so easily compromised, God help us with a judiciary crawling with corrupt judges and where some very senior lawyers serve as conduit for bribes to sway court decisions

    The first part of this article indicated a few inescapable actions President Buhari must take if he wants to succeed in reining in corruption in the land.  Corruption has become so hydra-headed, even systemic in Nigeria that were it not going to fight back any war aimed at it, any attempt to stamp it out would still be a helluva duel. Those eating our country raw are so entrenched, and loaded,  that they have wasted no time in showing  what they are capable of  in the National Assembly the way they made minced meat of the  time honoured practice of  having members  of the majority party in parliament holding the principal  posts in both chambers, whether  at  home here in Nigeria,  or in  the U.S from where we borrowed the presidential system. If the National Assembly, expected to be the bulwark of the government, could be so easily compromised, God help us with a judiciary crawling with corrupt judges and where some very senior lawyers serve as conduit for bribes to sway court decisions.  Except President Buhari demonstrates unmistakable seriousness, early enough, by ensuring that every member of his party not only  respects party supremacy, but  acts in support of his government’s  policies,  which one is sure will be people friendly, there is enough stolen money out there to make nonsense of his  change mantra, the anti-corruption war, inclusive.

    Fortunately, as I was busy making suggestions on the subject here last Sunday, Itse Sagay, a distinguished legal scholar and Professor of Law, in concluding his article: ‘Politics, Public Service, Morality and Integrity in Nigeria’, (The Nation of the same date), was leveraging on his huge knowledge of the underlying weaknesses in our extant legal system to prescribe the following ways of strengthening current laws if the president is to successfully fight corruption. Wrote Professor Sagay:  “I wonder whether Nigeria has not gone too far down the depths of the abyss to be saved.  Recently, Professor Ben Nwabueze suggested that only a bloody revolution could save Nigeria.  I hope not.  What we absolutely and urgently need is a leader who can impose discipline and eliminate corruption.  There will be need to amend our laws to strengthen the state at the expense of individual liberty at least for a short while, if we are to get to redemption point.  All legal provisions permitting preliminary objections to prosecutions for corruption must be repealed from our laws.  The power of any court to issue an order of injunction against a trial for any crime, particularly corruption, should be repealed.  Interlocutory applications in cases concerning corruption should be banned.”

    I am not quite sure whether being a legal scholar, Professor Sagay could not bear to suggest, as I did in the first part of this article, that anybody facing corruption charges should be presumed guilty with the responsibility devolving on him to prove his innocence. Nigerians just have to appreciate the fact that corruption in our country has assumed the stature of a virulent cancer which demands nothing short of a drastic surgical intervention. Like President Buhari has been quoted as saying, if we do not kill corruption, corruption will kill Nigeria and “the house would have truly fallen”, to quote the German, Karl Maier. Over and above Professor  Sagay’s  prescriptions,  it is my view  that  a Special Court should be established to try corruption cases so as to avoid the shenanigans we see daily in our courts; shenanigans which  lawyers exploit to thwart justice, thereby ensuring that corruption remains alive and kicking, even emboldened.

    The Nation editor, Gbenga Omotoso, took us through some of these in his recent article: “An Anti-Graft War Advisory” –The Nation, Thursday, July 23, 2015 – from which we shall quote at some length.

    He wrote: “Here we go: Merely taking you before the court – if you fail to get a perpetual injunction against the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC), its agents, privies, officers, operatives or whatsoever called – does not make you a prisoner. Be ready to shell out a fortune – obviously a small fraction of the cash they claim you have stolen – to get a damn good lawyer, a Senior Advocate of Nigeria (SAN). There are many of them in town nowadays. Your adversary, the tempestuous EFCC, cannot afford them. When you are remanded, don’t panic and give your traducers a chance to say: “Oh; he’s finished.” Remember, the offence, no matter how huge the cash involved, is bailable. In fact, the charges may be as long as the Lagos-Ibadan Expressway. Never mind; as the case progresses, they may be withdrawn, amended or consolidated into one or two.

    Bail will come in very liberal terms

    When the case proper begins, your lawyer will tell the judge he has no jurisdiction to entertain the matter. The judge could be stubborn. He may fix a date to determine his jurisdiction and, in actual fact, rule that he is fit to hear the matter. Don’t fret. Your lawyer will simply head for the ever-busy Court of Appeal. This, no doubt, will take months to resolve. The appeal may be decided, most likely against you.

    Another judge will naturally take over the case. A plea is taken – “Are you guilty or not?” Be firm in replying: “Not guilty at all, my Lord.” Your SAN will then raise a preliminary objection, saying again that His Lordship has no jurisdiction to hear the matter. “The offence was not committed in Abuja,” he will tell the court, “and the money involved is, after all, not the federal government’s.” Besides, no prima facie case has been established against you, the lawyer will say confidently.”

    At this point, after many years in court, the accused most probably becomes a governor and for the next eight years, our man is untouchable – no thanks to immunity. And if he decided to become a senator, I ask Nigerians to guess what chances EFCC, which could not afford a SAN in the first place, would have against an individual legislator- for whose gluttony, immodesty and outright immorality, if not thievery –  Nigeria spends an estimated N290 Million annually to maintain in a country with more than 70 percent of its populace living below poverty line, who  could thereby easily afford to buy the entire system to escape justice.

    It is therefore crystal clear that President Buhari has his job cut out in his promised war against corruption. He has to present to the National Assembly a steely executive bill , with none of those debilitating clauses as in the present EFCC Law, which passed into law, will then  form the regulatory underpinning of a serious anti corruption war. Presidency officials must ensure that the National Assembly is not allowed to embed in the new law, any of those their usual shifty clauses which lawyers turn round to mindlessly exploit for money.

    Reactions

    I  present below, for lack of space, a few of my readers’ reactions to the first part.

    A brand new anti-graft agency will be great especially with a head like Gen. Ishola Williams (RTD) which is the only way we can be sure the fight will be certain and thorough  –  080338392. (The general’s name appeared in more reactions).

    May you continue to live long with the ink ever-flowing from the source of truth. An organisation like the current EFCC cannot be the institution President Buhari envisaged would salvage Nigeria from the present wreck -080536571..

    Thanks for your article on anti-corruption. One obstacle in the way of implementing your revolutionary idea is the role of lawyers. The legal profession is based on lying and immorality as lawyers are always concerned with making money even if it means defending Lucifer and ensuring he is declared a saint. So the role of lawyers and the legal profession must be examined and debated nationally with a view to finding how to neutralise their satanic role in the war against corruption -080338562..

    Femi, I am sure you must have forgotten that the legislature that makes the law is having Saraki as the president despite the issue of Trade Bank and that of his family. I have written you earlier on this. Why do you think he wants to be Senate President at all costs? Why are former governors all heading to the senate? This legislature will block all anti corruption moves by the executive. That is why Saraki and Dogara are there. I pray that the president reads your piece of yesterday. It is more than marvellous -080556794..

  • Are we winning anti-corruption war?

    CORRUPTION is a disease that has pervaded almost  every state in Nigeria. It has increased in quality and intensity, with alarming and devastating consequences on humans and their standard of living. The endemic nature of corruption constitutes one of its greatest threats to humanity. It’s pathetic and shameful to say that a country flowing with milk and honey has been plagued with corruption at all levels.

    Corruption extends to every aspect of public life, making it more or less impossible to stay in business without being infected with this bug. As we have the common bribe-giving people and leaders, so also we have the most common bribe-taking people and leaders. In fact, it has become a natural/destructive web as anyone hoping to do business, be it small or big in Nigeria, must first of all take corruption as a paramount factor by making room for its operation or by putting it into consideration.

    Indeed, the situation is so bad that even some government officials allegedly collect bribe one to get government business done. The continuous threats of unemployment, embezzlement of public fund, mismanagement of the nation’s wealth, social unrest, political instability, extortion, influence peddling, and fraud and lots more – all these have bred inefficiency, unethical value and indiscipline, pervasion of integrity, abuse of power, greediness and selfishness in some of us.

    One cannot but to agree with Smith, who describes Nigeria as a country that is plunging into ever-greater depth of corruption and decay. Thus, the greater the development plans, the larger the scale of corruption which their implementation encourage as efforts that are being made for the benefit of the community are diverted to at private pockets. Rev Charles Caleb Colton (1780-1932), said: “Corruption is like a ball of snow, once it’s set a rolling, it must increase.” Also, a social critic, David Brin, said power corrupts, but actually it’s truer that power attracts the corruptible. The sane are usually attracted by other things than power.”

    Corruption poses a serious development challenge. In the political realm, it undermines democracy and good governance by subverting formal processes. Corruption in elections and in legislative bodies reduces accountability and fair representation in policymaking; corruption in the judiciary undermines or suspends the rule of law; and corruption in public administration results in the unequal provision of services. More generally, In Nigeria another major cause of corruption is ethnicity called tribalism in Nigeria. Friends and kinsmen seeking favour from officials may impose difficult strains on the ethical disposition of the official. Corruption erodes the institutional capacity of the government as procedures are disregarded, resources are siphoned off, and officials are hired or promoted without regard to performance. At the same time, corruption undermines the legitimacy of government and such democratic values as trust and tolerance.

    Corruption also undermines economic development by generating considerable distortions and inefficiency. In the private sector, corruption increases the cost of business through the price of illicit payments, it also generates economic distortions in the public sector by diverting public investment into capital projects where bribes and kickbacks are more plentiful. Corruption also lowers quality of standards of compliance with construction, environmental, or other regulations; reduces the quality of the government services and infrastructure as is too evident to Nigerians; and increases budgetary pressures on government.This may be the reason in spite of the unprecedented hikes in crude oil prices that have led to the so-called excess oil revenues. Painfully, the Federal Government is still finding it quite difficult to balance its yearly budgets.

    How do we claim to be on the winning the war against corruption when indications has shown that many Nigerians leaders at all levels, including past heads of state, governors, politicians, retired civil servants, judges, law makers and a army generals, have engaged and are still engaging in corrupt practices. For this reason, the question that Nigerians should be asking is not, who among the moneyed elite class is corrupt? But, who is NOT corrupt? That this must be so is evident from the way many Nigerians seem to live above their legitimate incomes. Otherwise how does one explain the sources for the financing of those luxurious, palatial, stately mansions (that have mushroomed in many Nigerian cities, towns, and even villages), not to speak of the sumptuously lavish social parties and very expensive top-end luxury cars put on display by a large number of businessmen, senior public servants and military personnel, serving and retired. Perhaps the real challenge with tackling corruption in Nigeria is that most of the corruption warriors (the policy makers, the legislators, the police and the judiciary) pressed into service are themselves not innocent. These are the realities that have stared past and present leaders on the face as they moan about corruption and pretend to fight it.

    With the new administration on board, can we say with boldness that we can walk tall and deliver ourselves from this web of corruption, though many Nigerians saw a level of transparency, integrity, and accountability in 1985, under the military administration of General Muhammadu Buhari(rtd), where a cross section of political gladiators were convicted of various corrupt practices  and prosecuted. Now that  President Buhari has been sworn in, is there any proof or evidence that the history of 1985 can repeat itself? As a nation, let us be sincere with ourselves.

    Essentially, what is required to tame the feathers of corruption in the polity is the political will and dedication of the leaders, and the enabling environment to make the process credible.

    This, nevertheless, must begin with an overhaul of the country’s anti-graft agencies, a review of the laws as well as ridding of indiscipline from the judicial system.

    The stakes are high, so also is the optimism that even if the grip of corruption cannot be cut off, it would certainly be curbed to the bearest minimum. It is cherry news that the president and his deputy have taken the bull by the horn by declaring their assets. This, to a large extent, will restore the hope that Nigeria will would soon be free to a reasonable extent from this canker worm that has penetrate its  system.

     

    • Esther, 400-Level Mass Comm., UNILORIN
  • For Buhari’s anti-corruption war to succeed, he must do the unusual

    For Buhari’s anti-corruption war to succeed, he must do the unusual

    To succeed, President Buhari needs  a brand new  agency which must be freed of all the entanglements the present one was deliberately made to suffer

    The  flurry of EFCC activities, as  observed  in the past  two  weeks,  which  former  Governor Murtala Nyako’s  former Director of Press and Public Affairs,  Mallam Ahmad  Sajoh, has summarily, but understandably,  dismissed as effete,  goes a long way to show the  critical role  the person, even the mere body language  of  a President   plays  in  the war against corruption even though in the instant case,  it s President Muhammadu Buhari’s well known anti corruption stance that has put the agency on over drive.  Long before President Goodluck  Jonathan  verbalized his now oft-quoted ‘stealing is not  corruption’ gaffe,  he had shown, in every material  particular, but  especially in his body language, as well,  as  his government’s  penchant   to withdraw ongoing corruption cases from  the courts- and that was where prosecution was  allowed  at all – that he saw nothing wrong  in allowing corruption to luxuriate  under his watch.

    Nor was this unpremeditated.

    As I once wrote on these pages, President Jonathan’s re-election bid  began as soon as he was sworn in 29 May, 2011 and it was more of a South-South project than one nursed by the President who was  then  confronted  by the huge  challenges  confronting him as he stepped  into  high office, for the first time ever, on his own mettle. His election in that year’s general election was his very first.  For his minders who were, mostly his South- South compatriots, they were going to use what they have, that is, oil, to get what they want. Therefore, go through  the major incidents of corruption in his four years –oil subsidy scam, unremitted crude sales, oil swaps, LNLG dividends and taxes,  to mention  the most disruptive of the Nigerian economy, they were all linked to oil and to the NNPC. Indeed, it was to perfect one scheme or the other that the Petroleum Minister of the era accounted for more Group Managing Directors than any of her predecessors, going down several decades. They knew exactly those who must be appeased with  one  thing  or the other and for that same reason the number of  oil importers, just like  the  amount  claimed to have been spent on subsidy which more than tripled the  appropriate amount, all ballooned  beyond  belief.

    A recent article on  Wikipedia  summed  up corruption  during the Goodluck Jonathan administration as follows: “In 2014, Nigeria’s rank improved from 143rd to the 136th position on  Transparency International’s Corruption Perceptions Index.  In late 2013, Nigeria’s then  Central Bank  governor Lamido Sanusi  informed President Goodluck Jonathan that the state oil company, NNPC  had failed to remit US$20 billion of oil revenues, which it owed the state. Jonathan, however, dismissed the claim and replaced Sanusi for his mismanagement of the central bank’s budget. A Senate committee also found Sanusi’s account  lacking in substance.  After the conclusion of the NNPC’s account Audit, it was announced in January 2015 that NNPC’s non-remitted revenue is actually US$1.48billion, which it needs to refund  to the Government.  Upon release of both the PwC and Deloitte report by the government at the eve of its exit, it was however determined that truly close to $20 billion was indeed missing or misappropriated or spent without appropriation.  In addition to these, the government of Goodluck Jonathan had several running scandals including the BMW Purchase by his Aviation Minister, $250 million plus security contracts to militants in the Niger Delta, massive corruption and kick backs in the Ministry of Petroleum, Malibu Oil International Scandal, and several scandals involving the Petroleum Ministry including accusations of sweetheart deals  with select fronts and business people to divert public wealth. In the dying days of Goodluck Jonathan’s administration, the Central Bank Scandal of cash tripping of mutilated notes also broke out, where it was revealed that in a 4 day  period , 8 billion naira was stolen directly by low level workers in the CBN. This revelation  brings to the fore, a crime  suspected to have gone on for years  but went undetected until revealed by whistleblower”.

    Five weeks into the new administration, that mild view of corruption under Jonathan has been completely shredded as gory details  of more pour in. For instance a 4-man committee  set up by the National Economic Council (NEC) is now  investigating  how  out of  N8.1 trillion it  earned  between 2012 and May 2015, NNPC  paid only N4.3 trillion to government,  illegally withholding  N3.5 trillion.

    I am sure Nigerians now know how Jonathan’s Petroleum minister was able to  fund her multi-billion naira luxury flights, an investigation of which, by the National Assembly,  President Jonathan defiantly foiled.

    If NNPC  is tear-inducing, EFCC’s performance during the Jonathan administration makes everything  more  galling. So nauseating is it that Governor Nyako’s man,  Malam Sajoh could describe the agency  in the following words: “an agency that was very sloppy in prosecution and losing virtually all high profile cases cannot in any way help in the current anti-corruption war”. That is  nothing but the truth so  EFCC  should  please get off  this pretended  resurgence which is, of course,  nothing more than  a façade.  How many cases did it win  in the entire four years of President Goodluck Jonathan?

    Here then is where my advice to the President comes in if he hopes to succeed in the anti-corruption war; a war in which the other side has already taken the commanding heights of the national assembly.  But the President is already assured of the backing of Nigerians if those who allegedly  financed the mala fide at the National Assembly ever thought  payback time had come when the President  moves to put  up the legal structures for  his  anti corruption war.

    To succeed, President Buhari needs  a brand new  agency which must be freed of all the entanglements the present one was deliberately made to suffer.  If it could be done in electoral matters, a maximum of  not more  than  6 months  should  be prescribed  as the  duration of any corruption case.  In the new Law,  the accused must be presumed guilty, ab initio, and  the onus  put on  him to prove his/her innocence.

    The  President should consider an anti-corruption agency patterned after the Hong Kong  Independent Commission Against Corruption which is,  itself,  modeled after the Corrupt Practices Investigation Bureau (CPIB) of Singapore.

    Established in 1974 The Prevention of Corruption Act of  Hong Kong has the following powers:

    The power to investigate not just the suspect, but also the suspect’s family or agents and to examine their financial and other records.

    The power to require the attendance of witnesses for interview.

    The power to investigate any other sizeable offence which is disclosed in the course of a corruption investigation.

    A time limit for cases ( to avoid the penchant for sundry adjournments as we see with Nigerian courts working in cahoots with lawyers and EFCC officials).

    As of January 2015, a review of the Act and a new One-Stop Corruption Reporting Centre is in the works which is guaranteed to come up with stiffer penalties. Investigations carried out by the CPIB are habitually completed efficiently and with limited public exposure.

    Drastically weakened under the Jonathan administration, with Attorney-General Adokie hardly ever allowing it to function,  EFCC can no longer effectively partner with  the President to successfully fight corruption. .Dead already, it should just be buried to enable the Buhari government start on a fresh slate, a tabula rasa of sorts. Most of those involved in EFCC cases are complicit: EFCC officials, the lawyers on both sides, and even some of the judges who all ensure that the cases run like forever with some now as old as seven years, replete with poor investigation, and far worse prosecution. As you read this, many of our swashbuckling senators, especially the former governors among them, have anti corruption charges hanging on their necks but, stinking rich as they are, they know exactly how to wangle their way through.  If President Buhari must succeed in this war, he would have to set up a brand new anti-corruption agency, name a respected anti-corruption Tsar, expunge all those loopholes the legislators deliberately include to weaken laws and put the agency on a first line vote to ensure it is financially buoyant to perform its functions. Above all, it must be independent. And the new  law must also provide for the establishment of  a Special Court to handle corruption charges with the express directive to complete cases within not more than a period of 6 months.

     Anything less, we would not have started the anti-corruption war, at all.

  • Buhari’s anti-corruption drive unsettles PDP

    Buhari’s anti-corruption drive unsettles PDP

    •Party warns against witch-hunting

    THE Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) appears to be uncomfortable with President Muhammadu Buhari’s decision to recover public funds allegedly stolen by government officials in the last administration.

    Apparently worried by the decision, the PDP has expressed fears that the exercise might become a witch-hunt aimed at discrediting and undermining the opposition.

    A statement yesterday by its National Publicity Secretary, Chief Olisa Metuh, cautioned the President against politicising corruption.

    The PDP said: “While we expect the present administration to be serious about the fight against corruption, probe and prosecute those  involved, irrespective of their party leanings, we restate that these must be done within the ambits of the law and must not be used as a witch-hunt ostensibly to discredit and undermine the opposition.

    “We, therefore, caution against the current drama of politicising the issue of corruption in the country.”

    The party said no amount of intimidation, blackmail and propaganda by the Presidency would stop it from standing shoulder to shoulder with Nigerians in demanding that the President kick-start his government and commence implementation of his campaign promises.

    The statement described as “lame and diversionary” claims by the Presidency that the financial mess created by the last PDP led administration was still being cleared.

    Buhari had stated that he met a near empty treasury and huge debts at the time he assumed the Presidency on May 29, a situation which, he said, was one of the reasons for the delay in appointing his ministers.

    But the PDP said the delay was creating loopholes through which some persons claiming closeness to the President have infiltrated executive bodies, arm-twisting and conniving with unscrupulous elements in the bureaucracy to siphon the nation’s resources in the last 30 days.

    The statement added that the PDP would not in any way be cowed by threats and wild allegations by the Presidency into abdicating its responsibility of speaking out as an opposition party where the system is derailing.

    “The PDP and indeed all well-meaning Nigerians were appalled by the response from the Presidency regarding our call for prayers to enable President Buhari-led APC administration locate its bearing, compose a government and halt the prevailing stagnation with its huge negative impact on the system.

    “Instead of addressing the issues raised, the Presidency descended to insults, abuses and innuendos, a stance which not only bears out the case made by the PDP, but also raises questions about the capacity of this administration to shoulder the enormous responsibility of governance.

    “Furthermore, the analogy of the Augean stable is completely baffling to us at this level as it goes to a great length to question the capacity and the sincerity of those around the President.

    “In Greek mythology, Hercules in his ingenuity took the task and efficiently cleared the Augean’ stable in a day for which he demanded a reward of a tenth of fine cattle belonging to the king.

    “Nigerians would not want to believe that in the so-called clearing of the Augean stable, although not delivering in one day; President Buhari wants to play Hercules in his demand, this time, by wanting to run the government alone without the statutory components of the executive as enshrined in the constitution.

    “We ask, is the so-called clearing of mess responsible for his inability after 90 days of winning an election to make up his mind on rudimentary appointments such as Secretary to the Government of the Federation, Chief of Staff and his demand for 15 special advisers as approved by the PDP controlled Seventh Assembly since June 5, 2015?”

    “Perhaps we need to draw President Buhari’s attention to the fact that while he is busy clearing his imaginary mess on the pages of newspapers, some persons claiming closeness to him have in the last 30 days been piling up sleazes that also need his attention in key agencies of government.

    “Despite the absence of approving and supervising officials, key income generating institutions like Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation (NNPC), Nigerian Maritime Administration and Safety Authority (NIMASA), Nigeria Ports Authority (NPA), Federal Inland Revenue Service (FIRS) and other strategic agencies have been invaded by persons claiming to be friends and associates of the President and this puts to question the sincerity and seriousness of the administration to effect the so-called change upon which they rode to power.”

     

  • Pro-Chancellor’s essay on anti-corruption

    AAUA Pro-Chancellor and Chairman of Governing Council, Ambassador Oladele Akadiri, has instituted a N1million anti-corruption essay contest for workers and students of the institution as part of measures to engender transparency and due process in the nation.

    He spoke during a three-day workshop, titled: ‘Building university culture in Adekunle Ajasin University’ held on the campus.

    He said: “I am proposing a competitive academic exercise on campus in form of an essay that would be open to all students and staff, or a thesis, or a dissertation. The exercise could take off in July and end in September this year, so that necessary awards could be given to the winner and two runners-up in October. ‘’

    He asked the management to set up a three-member committee to establish the necessary rules and standards for the competition.

  • The profound anti-corruption legal framework Nigeria needs

    The profound anti-corruption legal framework Nigeria needs

    One thing is clear. The 2015 presidential election is about Nigerians’ frustration with the failure of successive governments to attack and defeat corruption in our public life. But the Nigerian Law itself has many loopholes through which it aids corruption, writes IWILADE AKINTAYO. 

    The Nigerian citizenry obviously yearn for an end to the odious corruption that has retarded the country’s progress for too long.The law, stripped of all its niceties,will remain complicit in our under-development crises until it is fundamentally restructured to promote, as against stifling, this legitimate yearning. But in what ways can a more profound anti-corruption and legally enforceable framework be formulated for Nigeria if this anti-graft war is ever to be properly conceptualised, fought, and won?

    Outright theft of public resources, misappropriation, conversion, diversions, the criminally insensitive but dubiously‘now almost legalised’ irrational pay packages for public officials at the expense of dire public works, contract inflations, bribery, kick-backs, prebendalism, nepotism and several other similar terminologiesall describe varied shadesof corruption by whatever definition we codify it. For Nigeria, it is easy to cite the Criminal Code, Penal Code, Advance Fee Fraud Act, the EFCC and ICPC Acts,etc as having largely made provisions against some of the corrupt acts covered by the mentioned terminologiesand prescribing prosecution and punishments for same – even if the adequacy of some of the so-called punishments are deeply questionable.

    But there are still some protections for corruption advertently being promoted by Law itself which must be urgently deconstructed, to make the Nigerian Law more profoundly intolerant of corruption, especially in public life- in the coming period. Some of the ways the Law itself currently engenders corruption in public life begins with the structure of the 1999 Constitution (even as so far amended), given its rabidly consumerist, prebendalist and unproductively unitaristdisposition which, pretend as we may, remains a fundamental drag on Nigeria’s development prospects.

    To start a genuine anti-corruption war, public office must first be adorned in genuine garbs of probity, prudence and an inspiring modesty that emphasizes honest service far above the insatiable material gluttony that currently underlies the habits of the political class. Thus, in addition to the massive looting that has become commonplace, anarea that unarguablyreflects the legitimation of corruption in public life is the unchecked irrational salaries and allowances the current political class mindlessly allocate to itselfin complete contempt for the miserable quality of life of the people it purports to represent. These clear cases of ‘legitimised’ corruption are points from which any sincere anti-corruption combat must decisively start.

    Unfortunately, the Law is yet to expressly criminalise this utterly insensitive but dubiously ‘legalised’ irrational pay packages being dishonestly paid to public officials. The Law must urgently place a rational limit on this rapacious looting being disguised as legitimate pay while also fiercely criminalizing any crossing of the set limit. It must do so urgently if the anti-corruption war is to be sincerely waged and if it is to gain unprecedented traction and momentum within a pretty short time.

    Let’s take but only one of the criminally insensitive examples- i.e; the much indignantly analysed pay packages of Nigerian Legislatorswhich is still, to complicate the assault on the people’s dignity, even shrouded in secrecy. The figures are disparate but there is almost universal consensus that Nigerian Legislators are one of (if not) the highest paid in the world. Given that the people they purport to represent are among the poorest of the world, it is beyond debate that it smacks of unprecedented legitimation of corruption to allocate such disproportionately large chunks of scarce resources to irrationally enrich Legislators and other public officials who pretend to be representing some of the world’s poorest people. The Revenue Mobilization, Allocation and Fiscal Commission Act clearly provides for the Commission’s powers under Section 6 as follows: “The Commission shall have powers to determine the remuneration appropriate to the holders of the offices as specified in Parts A and B of the First Schedule to this Act”.

    Now that we are faced with situations where public officials now create parallel Laws across the States and even plain administrative decisions to circumvent the powers of the RMAFC, to allocate clearly undeserving rewards to themselves, outside the figures already fixed by the RMAFC in line with powers given to it in Section 6, the Law cannot continue to stand helpless in the face of such unbridled desecration of public life.

    A simple amendment to Section 6 of the RMAFC Act will immediately water down these circumventions. Or, in addition, an outright enactment of a separate Act to limit the remuneration to be received by all categories of public officials could also be considered so as to properly spell out the philosophy of service and to also criminalise the festering ideas, and irrational remuneration practices,that have made public office essentially a platformfor primitive acquisition in Nigeria.

    For instance, an additional phrase to provide that in the exercise of the powers of the RMAFC under its enabling Act, the Commission shall not fix the total salaries, allowances, pensions or other remuneration package by whatever name called, and of any public official of whatever designation, whether serving or retired, including the President and Vice-President of the Federal Republic of Nigeria, beyond N30 million per year, which value shall at all times be determined by the purchasing power and value of N30 million as at January  2015,(or something of sort)will be a vital addition to the RMAFC Act.

    Also, a provision that it  shall be an offence, under the Act, for any public official to earn or draw from the public treasury any further salaries, allowances, pension or other remuneration package by whatever name called, and under whatever guise, beyond the limit provided by the Act, and beyond the limit provided for in the category of the said public official under the relevant guidelines issued from time to time by the commission, will also be essential. If the maximum limit is fixed at the value of N30million for instance, it will mean the highest paid public official, which is Mr. President, cannot draw beyond N30 million from the public purse for salaries, allowances and other remuneration by whatever name called. That stands to reason that all other public officials down the line from the Vice-President to ministers to legislators till the councillors at the lowest Local Government Ward Levels will earn lower wages relevant to their service and status.

    This is fair enough for the long oppressed Nigerian people to drastically cut their ‘leaders’’ untenable appetite for earning in ways that mock the extreme poverty already inflicted on the majority of citizens. If the United States President, despite sitting on the largest government budget on earth, and being in charge of the world’s biggest economy;still earns a maximum annual income of $400, 000 (approximately N80 million) by Law, no President of Nigeria deserves to earn beyond a maximum yearly income of $150,000 (approximately N30 million) in view of the wretched state of the average Nigerian citizen. How much will be saved from such drastic cuts in public officials’ pay will be almost unimaginable.

    More so, the revolutionary impact of such drastic reforms on dismantling the psychology and perception of public office as the place to earn undeserved wages will be phenomenal. To immediately render sterile the irrational aspects of various Pension Laws for former governors and other public officials that have been surreptitiously passed across the states, the RMAFC Act and other reformatory Acts that may be pushed for enactment, need to fundamentally provide that where there is any conflict between the State Laws and the reformatory Acts and guidelines, the State Laws to the extent of their inconsistency must stay void. We should also have a provision that shall make it mandatory,for any relevant body, to make available to the public, on request, any details about what any public official receives as salaries, emoluments, pensions and benefits by whatever name called.

    There are some finer legal and economic details to be worked out beyond this article of course but the bottom line is that public service must be urgently rid of its current obscene ostentatiousness that continues to push recurrent expenditure to unsustainable limits and making it almost impossible to develop critical human capital and material infrastructure without which we are headed nowhere.

    The racket going on in the name of ‘jumbo’ pay is festering because there is no consequence for such and the Law probably never envisaged such a rapacious bunch. But now that we are faced with such embarrassing legitimation of corruption, the Law can wade in since persuasions and criticisms have apparently achieved nothing so far.

    Anybody guilty of contravening the limits set by Law should be liable on conviction to fines double whatever extra amounts drawn in addition to mandatory jail terms of not less than 15 to 20 years. Such Laws will no doubt be a sword in the hands of a truly anti-corruption government to activate its anti-graft agencies to impartially prosecute the hundreds of members of the political class who had no business aspiring to political office in the first place anyway.

    Other corruption prone laxities being promoted by Law include the patronage system of the 1999 Constitution, and supporting Laws that continue to create an over-bloated and pointless bureaucracy. An example is Section 147 (3) of the 1999 Constitution which provides for appointment of Ministers from every State of the Federation. The provisions in many enabling Acts and Regulationsto the effectthat appointments into boards, parastatals, even judicial appointments, etc must have representative from every state or region of the federation also promote the corruption of public life in disguised ways. A society founded on patronage above rational merit cannot be corruption free.

    We just must find a way, by Law, to end this patronage system currently being run in Nigeria in order to bring forth the creative energies of all people without regard to wherever anybody comes from, which God they worship or don’t worship, the genitals they possess, the biological, ethnic, sociological or ancient cultural circumstances of their birth etc. Definitely it will require a lot of political will and tact, but we just have to someday end our queer style of statutory federal character application in Nigeria and gradually embrace rational merit to stop the corruptive influences of entitlements based more on so-called places of origin as against actual conscientious effort and capacity in our public life.

    Singapore was a nation riddled with corruption at about the period of Nigeria’s independence but not again. Different fundamentals have been attributed to how that country moved from having corruption as a way of life (as Nigeria currently is) into dislodging it almost totally from its public life. The foundation was political will which is obviously currently lacking in Nigeria. Other fundamentals include proactive and firm anti-corruption Laws, an effective and impartial anti-corruption Agency, a Judiciary that supports the anti-corruption movement with well reflective jurisprudence and of course, an effective government that delivers on its service responsibilities to the citizens.

    Nigeria too must adopt stiffer anti-corruption laws with provisions like those in the Corruption Prevention Act currently in force in Singapore. Some useful provisions of Singapore’sCorruption Prevention Act include a presumption clause whereby public officials found in custody of sums suspected to be proceeds of bribes or misappropriation are to be presumed to have corruptly obtained it except they could prove to the court’s satisfaction that such sums derived from honest earning. This is similar to the proposal in Nigeria for Court ordered Assets Confiscation pending satisfactory explanation of honest source of acquisition in situations where there are reasonable suspicions of corruption, especially when someone is not known to have engaged in any meaningful trade or calling and yet possesses assets in excess of what can reasonably accrue from what he purports to do for a living.

    On corruption, our Evidence Act and jurisprudence have to shift the absolute burden of full presumption of innocence in such instances where public or private citizens come into sudden wealth without rational explanation. The State should be empowered to wade in to satisfy itself, through an impartial judicial system, that the wealth is product of honest earnings, failing which same should be liable to forfeiture. The Singapore model, of course with necessary modifications if need be, is highly recommended for Nigeria. Indeed, asides the statutory provisions, there are strictly enforced codes of transparency and accountability for every public officer in Singapore and the private sector is also not spared of the stringent anti-corruption battle. And with political will as the sub-structure, it has so far worked to the extent that Singapore, a once rabidly corrupt Country like Nigeria, is now one of the least corrupt countries in the world.

    All said, if our development is not to remain a mere lousy wish, the need to frontally attack, and dismantle corruption; long entrenched in our public and private governance, is one of the fundamental questions that should determine the outcome of Nigeria’s 2015 Presidential election. Whatever the provisions of the Law or the adoption or modification of our prescriptions here, if enforcement is lax and a deficit in political will remains prevalent, the Law framersand thinkerswouldonly have labored in vain- and Nigeria will remain corrupt and primitive. But hopefully, if the envisaged strong political will to courageously confront corruption is truly the choice of the majority this crucial ‘fourth’time, Nigeria may well be getting ready to become corruption free while we deal with other immanent contradictions as we move along.

     

    •Iwilade Akintayo is a Lagos-based

    Legal Practitioner.

  • The profound anti-corruption legal framework Nigeria needs

    The profound anti-corruption legal framework Nigeria needs

    One thing has become completely clear. The 2015 Presidential election is about Nigerians’ frustrations with the failure of successive governments to frontally attack and defeat corruption in our public life.But the Nigerian Law itself has many loopholes through which it aids corruption, writes IWILADE AKINTAYO. 

    The Nigerian citizenry obviously yearn for an end to the odious corruption that has retarded the country’s progress for too long.  The law, stripped of all its niceties,will remain complicit in our under-development crises until it is fundamentally restructured to promote, as against stifling, this legitimate yearning. But in what ways can a more profound anti-corruption and legally enforceable framework be formulated for Nigeria if this anti-graft war is ever to be properly conceptualised, fought, and won?

    Outright theft of public resources, misappropriation, conversion, diversions, the criminally insensitive but dubiously‘now almost legalised’ irrational pay packages for public officials at the expense of dire public works, contract inflations, bribery, kick-backs, prebendalism, nepotism and several other similar terminologiesall describe varied shadesof corruption by whatever definition we codify it. For Nigeria, it is easy to cite the Criminal Code, Penal Code, Advance Fee Fraud Act, the EFCC and ICPC Acts,etc as having largely made provisions against some of the corrupt acts covered by the mentioned terminologiesand prescribing prosecution and punishments for same- even if the adequacy of some of the so-called punishments are deeply questionable.

    But there are still some protections for corruption advertently being promoted by Law itself which must be urgently deconstructed, to make the Nigerian Law more profoundly intolerant of corruption, especially in public life- in the coming period. Some of the ways the Law itself currently engenders corruption in public life begins with the structure of the 1999 Constitution (even as so far amended), given its rabidly consumerist, prebendalist and unproductively unitaristdisposition which, pretend as we may, remains a fundamental drag on Nigeria’s development prospects.

    To start a genuine anti-corruption war, public office must first be adorned in genuine garbs of probity, prudence and an inspiring modesty that emphasizes honest service far above the insatiable material gluttony that currently underlies the habits of the political class. Thus, in addition to the massive looting that has become commonplace, anarea that unarguablyreflects the legitimation of corruption in public life is the unchecked irrational salaries and allowances the current political class mindlessly allocate to itselfin complete contempt for the miserable quality of life of the people it purports to represent. These clear cases of ‘legitimized’ corruption are points from which any sincere anti-corruption combat must decisively start.

    Unfortunately, the Law is yet to expressly criminalize this utterly insensitive but dubiously ‘legalized’ irrational pay packages being dishonestly paid to public officials. The Law must urgently place a rational limit on this rapacious looting being disguised as legitimate pay while also fiercely criminalizing any crossing of the set limit. It must do so urgently if the anti-corruption war is to be sincerely waged and if it is to gain unprecedented traction and momentum within a pretty short time.

    Let’s take but only one of the criminally insensitive examples- i.e; the much indignantly analyzed pay packages of Nigerian Legislatorswhich is still, to complicate the assault on the people’s dignity, even shrouded in secrecy. The figures are disparate but there is almost universal consensus that Nigerian Legislators are one of(if not) the highest paid in the world. Given that the people they purport to represent are among the poorest of the world, it is beyond debate that it smacks of unprecedented legitimation of corruption to allocate such disproportionately large chunks of scarce resources to irrationally enrich Legislators and other public officials who pretend to be representing some of the world’s poorest people. The Revenue Mobilization, Allocation and Fiscal Commission Act clearly provides for the Commission’s powers under Section 6 as follows: “The Commission shall have powers to determine the remuneration appropriate to the holders of the offices as specified in Parts A and B of the First Schedule to this Act”.

    Now that we are faced with situations where public officials now create parallel Lawsacross the States and even plain administrative decisions to circumvent the powers of the RMAFC, to allocate clearly undeserving rewards to themselves, outside the figures already fixed by the RMAFC in line with powers given to it in Section 6, the Law cannot continue to stand helpless in the face of such unbridled desecration of public life.

    A simple amendment to Section 6 of the RMAFC Act will immediately water down these circumventions. Or, in addition, an outright enactment of a separate Act to limit the remuneration to be received by all categories of public officials could also be considered so as to properly spell out the philosophy of service and to also criminalize the festering ideas, and irrational remuneration practices,that have made public office essentially a platformfor primitive acquisition in Nigeria.

    For instance, an additional phrase to provide that in the exercise of the powers of the RMAFC under its enabling Act, the Commission shall not fix the total salaries, allowances, pensions or other remuneration package by whatever name called, and of any public official of whatever designation, whether serving or retired, including the President and Vice-President of the Federal Republic of Nigeria, beyond the sum of Thirty Million Naira per annum which value shall at all times be determined by the purchasing power and value of Thirty Million Naira as at January of the year 2015,(or something of sort)will be a vital addition to the RMAFC Act.

    Also, a provision that it  shall be an offence, under the Act, for any public official to earn or draw from the public treasury any further salaries, allowances, pension or other remuneration package by whatever name called, and under whatever guise, beyond the limit provided by the Act, and beyond the limit provided for in the category of the said public official under the relevant guidelines issued from time to time by the commission, will also be essential. If the maximum limit is fixed at the current value of Thirty Million Naira for instance, it will mean the highest paid public official, which is Mr. President, cannot draw beyond N30 million from the public purse for salaries, allowances and other remuneration by whatever name called. That stands to reason that all other public officials down the line from the Vice-President to ministers to legislators till the councillors at the lowest Local Government Ward Levels will earn lower wages relevant to their service and status.

    This is fair enough for the long oppressed Nigerian people to drastically cut their ‘leaders’’ untenable appetite for earning in ways that mock the extreme poverty already inflicted on the majority of citizens. If the United States President, despite sitting on the largest government budget on earth, and being in charge of the world’s biggest economy;still earns a maximum annual income of $400, 000.00 (approximately Eighty Million Naira) by Law, no President of Nigeria deserves to earn beyond a maximum annual income of $150,000 (approximately Thirty Million Naira) in view of the wretched state of the average Nigerian citizen. How much will be saved from such drastic cuts in public officials’ pay will be almost unimaginable.

    More so, the revolutionary impact of such drastic reforms on dismantling the psychology and perception of public office as the place to earn undeserved wages will be phenomenal. To immediately render sterile the irrational aspects of various Pension Laws for former governors and other public officials that have been surreptitiously passed across the states, the RMAFC Act and other reformatory Acts that may be pushed for enactment, need to fundamentally provide that where there is any conflict between the State Laws and the reformatory Acts and guidelines, the State Laws to the extent of their inconsistency must stay void. We should also have a provision that shall make it mandatory,for any relevant body, to make available to the public, on request, any details about what any public official receives as salaries, emoluments, pensions and benefits by whatever name called.

    There are some finer legal and economic details to be worked out beyond this article of course but the bottom line is that public service must be urgently rid of its current obscene ostentatiousness that continues to push recurrent expenditure to unsustainable limits and making it almost impossible to develop critical human capital and material infrastructure without which we are headed nowhere.

    The current racket going on in the name of ‘jumbo’ pay is festering because there is no consequence for such and the Law probably never envisaged such a rapacious bunch. But now that we are faced with such embarrassing legitimation of corruption, the Law can wade in since persuasions and criticisms have apparently achieved nothing so far.

    Anybody guilty of contravening the limits set by Law should be liable on conviction to fines double whatever extra amounts drawn in addition to mandatory jail terms of not less than 15 to 20 years. Such Laws will no doubt be a sword in the hands of a truly anti-corruption government to activate its anti-graft agencies to impartially prosecute the hundreds of members of the political class who had no business aspiring to political office in the first place anyway.

    Other corruption prone laxities being promoted by Law include the patronage system of the 1999 Constitution, and supporting Laws that continue to create an over-bloated and pointless bureaucracy. An example is Section 147 (3) of the 1999 Constitution which provides for appointment of Ministers from every State of the Federation. The provisions in many enabling Acts and Regulationsto the effectthat appointments into boards, parastatals, even judicial appointments, etc must have representative from every state or region of the federation also promote the corruption of public life in disguised ways. A society founded on patronage above rational merit cannot be corruption free.

    We just must find a way, by Law, to end this patronage system currently being run in Nigeria in order to bring forth the creative energies of all people without regard to wherever anybody comes from, which God they worship or don’t worship, the genitals they possess, the biological, ethnic, sociological or ancient cultural circumstances of their birth etc. Definitely it will require a lot of political will and tact, but we just have to someday end our queer style of statutory federal character application in Nigeria and gradually embrace rational merit to stop the corruptive influences of entitlements based more on so-called places of origin as against actual conscientious effort and capacity in our public life.

    Singapore was a nation riddled with corruption at about the period of Nigeria’s independence but not again. Different fundamentals have been attributed to how that country moved from having corruption as a way of life (as Nigeria currently is) into dislodging it almost totally from its public life. The foundation was political will which is obviously currently lacking in Nigeria. Other fundamentals include proactive and firm anti-corruption Laws, an effective and impartial anti-corruption Agency, a Judiciary that supports the anti-corruption movement with well reflective jurisprudence and of course, an effective government that delivers on its service responsibilities to the citizens.

    Nigeria too must adopt stiffer anti-corruption laws with provisions like those in the Corruption Prevention Act currently in force in Singapore. Some useful provisions of Singapore’sCorruption Prevention Act include a presumption clause whereby public officials found in custody of sums suspected to be proceeds of bribes or misappropriation are to be presumed to have corruptly obtained it except they could prove to the court’s satisfaction that such sums derived from honest earning. This is similar to the proposal in Nigeria for Court ordered Assets Confiscation pending satisfactory explanation of honest source of acquisition in situations where there are reasonable suspicions of corruption, especially when someone is not known to have engaged in any meaningful trade or calling and yet possesses assets in excess of what can reasonably accrue from what he purports to do for a living.

    On corruption, our Evidence Act and jurisprudence have to shift the absolute burden of full presumption of innocence in such instances where public or private citizens come into sudden wealth without rational explanation. The State should be empowered to wade in to satisfy itself, through an impartial judicial system, that the wealth is product of honest earnings, failing which same should be liable to forfeiture. The Singapore model, of course with necessary modifications if need be, is highly recommended for Nigeria. Indeed, asides the statutory provisions, there are strictly enforced codes of transparency and accountability for every public officer in Singapore and the private sector is also not spared of the stringent anti-corruption battle. And with political will as the sub-structure, it has so far worked to the extent that Singapore, a once rabidly corrupt Country like Nigeria, is now one of the least corrupt countries in the world.

    All said, if our development is not to remain a mere lousy wish, the need to frontally attack, and dismantle corruption; long entrenched in our public and private governance, is one of the fundamental questions that should determine the outcome of Nigeria’s 2015 Presidential election. Whatever the provisions of the Law or the adoption or modification of our prescriptions here, if enforcement is lax and a deficit in political will remains prevalent, the Law framersand thinkerswouldonly have labored in vain- and Nigeria will remain corrupt and primitive. But hopefully, if the envisaged strong political will to courageously confront corruption is truly the choice of the majority this crucial ‘fourth’time,Nigeria may well be getting ready to become corruption free while we deal with other immanent contradictions as we move along.

     

    •Iwilade Akintayo is a Lagos-based

    Legal Practitioner.

  • NBA inaugurates Anti-Corruption Committee

    NBA inaugurates Anti-Corruption Committee

    NIGERIAN Bar Association (NBA) President Mr. Augustine Alegeh (SAN) has inaugurated the association’s Anti-Corruption Committee.

    Dr. Theo. Osanakpo is the Chairman; John Baiyeshea (SAN) is Alternate Chairman and Joshua Usman  is the Secretary

    Alegeh urged the committee to strengthen the Anti-Corruption Commission, which is headed by Mallam Yusuf Ali (SAN), to eradicate corruption from the association and the nation.

    Alegeh said: “As the proponent of rule of law and voice of the people, the NBA under my watch has declared a zero tolerance on corruption, thereby reforming and strengthening the NBA Anti–Corruption Commission to monitor and report cases.

    “The fight against corruption by the NBA will not be taken seriously by any Nigerian except the NBA is seen as having done a serious battle against the perceived corruption within the Association.

    He continued: “Corruption, no doubt, is one of the major cankerworms that have eaten deep into the fabric of our national lives. It is responsible for the underdevelopment of our nation as resources meant for development are brazenly looted by few shylock individuals.

    “Over the years in Nigeria, the issue of corruption is a malaise in our society and in the whole world as well.  The NBA intends to join in the crusade against corruption in our country for the promotion of rule of law and entrenchment of tenets of democracy in our society.”

    Alegeh said example abounds on how some greedy Nigerians have cornered and looted the country’s resources. The ones that readily come to mind, he said, are the $180 million Halliburton scam, $4.5 billion fuel subsidy probe scam, $16 billion power probe, and N32.8billion pension scam to mention, but a few.

    “As part of its effort to develop and promote our nascent democracy, the Nigerian Bar Association has always been involved in the vibrant advocacy over the issue of corruption in Nigeria.

    “The leadership of the NBA issued a press statement at the last International Anti-Corruption Day on the 9th of December, 2014 that it will help the government at all levels to fight and break the corruption chain as it undermines the social and economic development in our society,” Alegeh said.

    Alegeh listed the committee’s terms of reference to include: “To Work with the 109 Branches of the NBA to set up an Anti-Corruption Committee each, to set and maintain the highest standards of conduct aimed at avoiding corrupt practices at the Bar and the Bench; to develop and facilitate policy dialogue and anti-corruption training courses/workshop for stakeholders in the fight against corruption, to develop feedback mechanism from anti corruption agencies and the public and to do all things necessary to ensure a corruption free society.”

    The President also inaugurated the NBA Prosecutors team and the Young Lawyers Forum.

  • Another critical look at corruption

    Another critical look at corruption

    Each year, international anti-corruption day precedes human rights day, but in all other ways, the developing struggle against corruption follows the path laid by the human rights movement. In his seminal work, Corruption and Human Rights Law in Africa, Dr. Kolawole Olaniyan argues convincingly that anticorruption efforts would be best progressed by relying not only on the shoulders of national criminal law systems, but also thorough recognition by and integration into global and regional human rights law, norms and practice.

    The 368 paged book painstakingly considers the many faceted perspectives of this proposition from a review of existing treatment of grand corruption schemes in domestic criminal law settings to a look at the wide-ranging scope of human rights protected by the African Charter on Human and Peoples’ Rights and other international treaties impacted or violated by corruption, to the theoretical bases for applying the normative human rights framework to a problem which has proven too vast to handle through criminal law alone, results in a reference point for lawyers, judges, elected leaders and civil society alike to take the movement forward.

    Dr. Olaniyan concludes with a proffering of several next steps which will undoubtedly provoke thoughtful debate in the years to come.

    The conceptualization is that of a two-way street: anticorruption movement needs certain strengths the human rights law framework has established, and human rights, to be realized, must root out underlying causes of corruption.

    In answering the question, why look to human rights law to address grand corruption, Dr. Olaniyan highlights several key points from moral to legalistic. In the early chapters of the book, he discusses the potential of depoliticizing and internationalizing the problem, and attaching an appropriate level of moral imperative to it. It’s not just an abstract, victimless crime or tool for political revenge. It’s a central cause of human suffering and poverty, and real people are real victims, everyday. He laments the fact that the victims are largely neutralised (and virtually anonymous) in the criminal process, with no access to human rights remedies.

    Education, health, development, and basic freedoms to information, association and life, fair trials and private property rights all languish in the hands of a governance structure laced with corruption. Just as in human rights discourse, the socially and economically vulnerable suffer the most.

    But where can we, the people, the “victims of corruption” go for redress? Who will hear our cries for help when we know all too well that our treasuries are being pilfered while public services – from physical infrastructure to fair criminal justice systems and humane, equal treatment of our populaces – are routinely denied?

    Compellingly, Dr. Olaniyan discusses three key developments in human rights law that start to unlock the blockages currently encountered in attempts to seek adequate redress for corruption: limitations on the concept of state sovereignty, expanded notions of standing of complainants, and rejection of strict rules of causation which dominate national criminal legal systems.

    As long as instances of grand corruption continue to be treated solely as particular criminal acts of individuals, various immunities will protect wrongdoers from sanctions and the argument of state sovereignty will politicize instantly international efforts at accountability. The human rights normative framework, however, has succeeded in limiting otherwise unchecked state power by imposing the duties to protect, respect and fulfill human rights, in effect, realizing a concept of public trust. The state is entrusted to operate for the benefit and security of the people, not to take what it will from the people’s national coffers.

    The human rights framework concludes that law protects people, not states; the power of the state is not absolute and cannot be used as a veil for abuse by its agents, but rather is responsible for their acts.

    The application of this framework to grand corruption is clear, as is Dr. Olaniyan’s clear advice that sticking with a strict adherence to traditional norms of state and sovereign immunity of national criminal law systems will always keep us from touching the lifeblood of corruption. Looking instead to other frameworks, he spends considerable time with Article 21 of the African Charter on Human and Peoples’ Rights, which evinces a clear intent to protect the peoples’ exclusive right to “freely dispose of their wealth and natural resources.” While he discusses many articles of the Charter which are violated by acts of corruption, Article 21 stands out as uniquely positioned to address massive theft of public assets and money-laundering plaguing much of the continent.

    But how can people access the protection of Article 21 and the spectrum of human rights provisions, especially when “spoliation” or wasting away of what naturally belongs to them is indigenous?

    Dr. Olaniyan looks to international human rights law notions of standing and causation. In contrast to restrictive domestic requirements of proving a specific and direct harm, by its very nature, the international human rights framework relies on universality and inviolability of rights, laying the basis for any citizen to challenge a breach. He proffers that we might go one step further to develop a type of derivative proceeding, akin to corporate shareholder actions, that members of the public could bring in recovering stolen assets.

    In place of struggling through ill-fitting causation standards in criminal law, Dr. Olaniyan suggests “the obligations of the state rather than the corrupt acts of its high-ranking officials” are what should be considered to establish responsibility. That, we could look to a state’s acts, or failures to act, in carrying out obligations and commitments under international treaties on corruption and human rights to determine a nexus of breach of diligence and vigilance, corrupt acts of high-ranking officials, and alleged human rights violations. This general form of showing causation is more fitting, considering especially the secrecy within which corruption lives.

    Civil society’s experience in initiating and supporting anticorruption proceedings, however, elucidate other complications in getting to accountability: exhaustion of remedies prior to an approach to a human rights venue is a serious obstacle for many, and the primary reason the Equatorial Guinea case brought to the African Commission by the Open Society Justice Initiative, mentioned in this book, was eventually not admitted. While it is encouraging to see the quotes from Commissioners that they would consider a case that alleged corruption in the violation of rights protected by the Charter, the denial of a case which alleged just that on exhaustion grounds, when there is considerable evidence of the impaired, partial judiciary in the country, torture and other forms of retribution against those who challenge the state, and resulting unavailability of true domestic recourse, shows we have much work to do in explaining the degree to which corruption impairs the widest spectrum of human rights.

    Recent and unfolding experience in international asset recovery and repatriation schemes also reveal a host of thorny issues that will likely require significant time to develop into norms which respect not only peoples’ rights to wealth and development but also democratic values of governance and decision-making by a truly representative mechanism, lest we devolve into battles between peoples’ within a state and between the people and the state.

  • Christian varsities must lead anti-corruption crusade, says don

    Christian varsities must lead anti-corruption crusade, says don

    the culture of corruption permeating every facet of national life has placed a more challenging role on Christian universities to be models, former Lagos State Attorney-General and Commissioner for justice Prof Yemi Osinbajo (SAN) has said.

    More than ever before, Osinbajo, who delivered the ninth convocation lecture of the Covenant University penultimate week, said Christian universities must identify with Biblical principles which have been the secret behind the development of modern societies.

    Speaking on the topic: Repositioning Nigerian universities for the 21st Century: Paradigms for Innovation and change, he said: “The system of higher education must begin by presenting the empirical correlation between poverty and dysfunction of institutions and the absence of values that conduce development to development and progress.

    “Christian universities have the special privilege and duty to take the lead in developing this paradigm. Why? First, we must appreciate that Christianity is the only faith where scriptures clearly say that believers or adherents are responsible for the destiny of their communities and nations. Second, few can reasonably contest the position that Christianity and Christian intellectual framework have been largely responsible for the industrial and economic revolution which began in Europe and North America and is the superstructure of all modern economies.”

    Backing his claims with scriptural passages, Osinbajo identified such ideals as hard work/planning and innovation (Proverbs 14:2, Luke 14:28); education (proverbs 8:10&11); time consciousness (Ephesians 5:6); and integrity (Mathew 5:37)

    Others are: respect for credit value and obligation (Psalm 37:10); saving and investment (Mathew 25:14-30; rule of law (Romans 13:1); payment of taxes and due to government (Mark 12:17) Fair Play (Colossian 4:1); as well as equality and dignity of man (Galatians 3:28).

    Aside Christian universities, Osinbajo equally challenges other universities in Nigeria to rise up and fight corruption, which he lamented, is denting the nation’s image internationally.

    “The truth is that in the ‘corrupted society’ corruption and embezzlement come before the safety and well being of the citizens or territorial integrity of the nation. Very few will deny the perception of Nigeria and Nigerians that is of a place and people with whom integrity trustworthiness are in short supply. That perception affects all aspects of life. It affects local and international investment decisions. The frequent issue is how to find the Nigerian of integrity to do business with.

    Further, Osinbajo lamented that Nigeria with over 150 million people and boasting of highest number of universities in the Sub-Saharan Africa; yet remains at the lower rung of the academic ladder due to poor funding by governments and consequently resulting in poor research.

    “Between 2009 and 2013, Nigeria had only 439 scientific and engineering articles published in physics, biology, chemistry, mathematics, clinical medicine, bio-medical research, engineering and technology, earth and space sciences. Australia in the same period had 20,603 publications, Germany-46,259, India-22,593, South Afica-3,125, South Korea, 25, 593, Malaysia-2,092, Saudi-Arabia-1,491, Singapore-4,543, Brazil-13,148, and UK,-46,035. It is quite apparent from the figures that if commitment to research in science and technology is any indication of commitment to innovation and change, then Africa’s largest economy is far from demonstrating serious commitment.”