|
The constitutionally entrenched right to life in Nigeria, does no longer make much meaning, since over 100 million people, in this country have been denied their right to livelihood. Right to life in the ears of a man or woman that is hungry and dying is at best a story told by an idiot, full of sound, yet signifying nothing.
State imposed poverty has robbed our people of all dignities with untold impact on their personalities. When Nigerians are not killed by hunger or preventable diseases, they die on the roads as they struggle to find immediate answer to their bewilderment. Nigeria loses thousands of people every year on road accidents caused by poor condition of our roads.
Contracts for rebuilding and maintaining roads run in millions of dollars every year, but they end up in private accounts held in various names abroad. So, each death recorded on our roads, is death caused, to a large extent, by official corruption. With our huge oil resources Nigeria has the capacity to build dual road network across the country, supported by a functional rail network, but that will not happen neither will high maintenance culture be pursued because those entrusted with our collective resources would like to cut corners at the expense of the lives of their country’s men, women and children. Shamefully, many of these “caterpillars of our commonwealth”, run to Western countries, on a regular basis, to devour the beauty and efficiency which they denied their own brothers and sisters at home.
To enable us, to further appreciate the linkages, it is important that we use key development indicators in Nigeria. There is an overwhelming agreement that development is painfully slow in this country. Nigeria seems to defy all tested paradigms for understanding growth and change. One country that, development actors and scholars agree that may not attain the UN Millennium Development Goals is Nigeria. This is no doubt a paradox, as ordinarily Nigeria has the potential to surpass all African Countries in attaining these goals.
The development indicators in Nigeria are scary .The poverty statistics show that 70% of Nigerian population lives on less than $1 a day, whilst over 90% live on less that £2, a day. Average life expectancy for both men and women is within the region of 46-48. Poverty actually means capacity deprivation. A majority of Nigerians have been deprived of their capacity to think, eat, clothe, work and live by those who swore to an oath to preserve those capabilities.
It would be very useful to think of the monies stolen by Governors, Legislators and other public “servants” in terms of schools, roads, industries and capacities, deprived. Viewing corruption in this way would graphically show why Nigeria, continues to lag behind and why it would be difficult for any change Programme to sail through and impact on people’s lives positively, without first and foremost uprooting this crime against humanity.
There is no country on planet, earth that can survive when 80% of the country’s annual budgets are stolen in broad daylight by the same people that are entrusted to safeguard the resources for the common good.
The Nigerian law must respond strongly to reflect our peculiar condition. Prof Goodhart defined law as those rules of conduct on which the existence of any society is based, violation of which tends to invalidate its existence. The continued violation of our corruption laws threaten to invalidate the very existence of this country. We do not need any precedence in creating a peculiar sentencing procedure to reflect our peculiar experience of how corruption has impacted on our citizens. The person that wears the shoes knows the exact spot where it pinches.
The level of severity of punishment attached to every crime is dependent on situation that prevails at certain point in time. The current financial crime regime in Nigeria is an important step forward, but a lot still needs to be done, to demonstrate a zero tolerance stance. The punishment for corruption in Nigeria does not fit the crime or the criminal. The interception of the so called plea bargain that gave freedom to some Governors in the past has turned the corruption fight into ridicule. No one would be deterred by the way we treat our corrupt officials with kid gloves.
Whilst one would not recommend that we follow the example of China in publicly executing corrupt officials, I think it is crucial that we re-examine the mixed messages that we are sending out on this issue. The message that we seem to send out is that public officials can afford to steal as much as they wanted but that they must be ready to give back a fraction of their loot on the Day of Judgment.
The EFCC is like a midwife of our corruption revolution, but there are forks on the road to victory. To make way for the success, there is an urgent need to consider this proposal for compulsory life jail, for corrupt officials. In addition, there is a sound case for reforming our current constitutional immunity clause, to aid the corruption crusade. The pre-condition for the continued existence of immunity does no longer exist. Our electoral systems have been hijacked and the trust that credible elections generate have been betrayed in Nigeria.
|
Tags
You must be logged in to add tags.
|
Writer Profile
Wilfred Mamah
This user has not written anything in his panorama profile yet.
|
Comments
Cool Mosh | Dec 2nd, 2007
All most all public office holder in nigeria are Corrupt. Mismanage public funds.
Cool Mosh | Dec 2nd, 2007
All most all public office holder in nigeria are Corrupt. Mismanage public funds.
You must be a TakingITGlobal member to post a comment. Sign up for free or login.
|
|
