Ayo Baje
“When a leader encourages the culture of impunity, the society is lost, and it makes the work harder for the rest of us”
-Prof. Wole Soyinka
One of the bitter facts about striking the delicate balance between criminality and justice is
that if the perpetrators of sundry crimes are either treated with kid gloves or left
to walk our streets as free men, some others would view such as the best way to go. Unfortunately, from the persisting challenge of insecurity through the reckless squandering of public funds by some favoured political helmsmen to budget padding, crass impunity has remained the middle name of our democratic dispensation, sad to note.
For instance, recently
Human rights lawyer, Femi Falana (SAN), criticized both the Federal and Benue State Governments for consistently failing to prosecute suspects arrested in connection with violent attacks that have resulted in the killing spree in Benue State. In the statement issued under the platform of the Alliance on Surviving COVID-19 and Beyond (ASCAB), of which he is the Chairman Falana lamented that although hundreds of suspects have been arrested over the years for crimes ranging from illegal possession of firearms to mass killings and kidnapping, most of them are never charged.
To him, President Bola Tinubu’s recent directive to the Nigeria Police Force to arrest and prosecute all those involved in the latest wave of violence in the state is potentially symbolic. He pointed out that previous arrests had not led to convictions or justice for victims. Falana also berated the Chief of Defence Staff, General Christopher Musa, for alleging that residents of the Yelwata community provided shelter for the killers. He described the statement as an attempt to shift blame onto the victims instead of addressing the systemic failures of security and governance.
Such a sordid situation triggers the burning questions. Is the life of the voiceless victims not important to humanity in general and the country in particular? Are the perpetrators of the scary insecurity ravaging the country that has sent hundreds of thousands of innocent souls to their early graves more valued than of the defenceless citizens? What is so difficult in identifying the sponsors, who arm them to kill fellow citizens and bring them to justice?
It is a similar situation when it comes to profligacy with regard to the way and manner some politicians squander public funds. Only recently there was disagreement between the National Assembly and the BudgIT over the issue of budget padding to the stupendous amount of N6.93 trillion in the 2025 federal government’s budget. Yet, some Nigerian contractors have remained unpaid for about a year! And there are allegations that some of them awarded contracts without going through the fiscal policy relating to the budget. That runs against Section 5 (b) of the Public Procurement Act. That is impunity, is it not? Yes, it is. But the pain in all of these is that the culture of impunity in places high and low has been with us for aeons.
As yours truly highlighted through an opinion essay back in April 2017 all the hue and cry that trailed the probe into the $ 10 billion (or is it $16 billion) sleaze in the power sector years back has long suffered from what physicists call the Doppler Effect, or died a Nigerian “natural death”.And as one warned back then that “that was not the first time and it may not likely be the last unless government musters the much-needed political will to bring the perpetrators to
book.”.But is the situation any better today? The answer is obvious.
It speaks volumess about how those in government interpret words such as accountability, probity and transparency. It demeans us all as a people that those vested with the sacred trust ot-free after committing various heinous crimes against the state. No one talks about the $12 billion Gulf War windfall again because some people are above the law. Not a few former state governors were once paraded by the EFCC as suspected to have siphoned state funds for self-aggrandizement. But years later, some of them dare to want to go back to their former offices, or find their ways to the hallowed Red chamber to make laws for you and yours truly. All these happen because of the insidious culture of impunity
These days, we read about the humungous amounts, even in dollars, found stashed in the private vaults of some former public office holders. From local government council chairmen to senators and governors, it is a recurring ugly decimal of national shame. But some hungry and disenfranchised poor citizens caught for stealing fowl and goats are either sent behind bars or hounded to hell!
As it was between 2015-2023, one is not surprised, therefore, that some corrupt politicians who defected from the PDP to the ruling APC are surreptitiously enjoying some ignoble immunity. It has happened before. All of these make a mockery of our judicial process. Many of the proceedings are centuries away from the Information Technology and Communication(ICT) age, as obsolete typewriters are still used for recording purposes. Series of laughable injunctions takes over the well-scripted drama of the absurd, characterised by the shameless display of former politicians suspected of grievous financial crimes, raising their hands in bravado as their paid praise worshippers fan their battered and bruised ego.
It is little of a surprise therefore, that virtually all notable institutions of government; from ministries to departments and agencies have in the past years of our democratic experience been probed for one fraud or the other. But after years of turning their searchlight to unveil the rattling skeletons in their cupboards, nothing meaningful comes out of it.
To several of those accused of such financial misdemeanour, Nigeria is one big, slumbering elephant to be milked dry. And the easiest way to have a piece of the national cake is to get elected or appointed into any plum political post. But for how long can we go on this way? Not much longer, I dare say.
Corruption, which is a debasement of set moral values and a violation of standard professional ethics, is like a two-edged sword that cuts both the victim and the misguided beneficiary. When those who have short-changed the system are not brought to speedy justice, it emboldens others with similar criminal inclinations to commit worse crimes.
It is responsible, as in the Nigerian politico-economic situation, for the countless pot hole-riddled roads, the epileptic power supply, pervasive preventable diseases and mass youth employment that have turned into daylight monsters haunting us all.
As one admonished the then President Muhammadu Buhari-led administration in 2017, I do so to the President Bola Tinubu-led government. To shame all critics, he must muster the political will, backed by the enabling laws by the National Assembly, to transform both the EFCC and the ICPC into well-toothed bulldogs that bark and bite. And no one, no matter his political persuasion, must be above the rule of law. As Isabel Allende aptly stated: ” Nothing is as dangerous as power with impunity”.
