The
Call:
In my opinion, the root tool to
driving a nation towards achieving its immediate, medium and long term goals
across the board of economic, social and political endeavours and activities is
the laws guiding these angles of national existence and co-existence of people.
In other words, the level of
economic prosperity of a nation is no respecter of the natural and human
resources prevalent in any country but the laws guiding the behaviours of
people which significantly contributes to providing the pathway within which
such laws fosters the nation’s prosperity.
It is imperative to stress that
the level of severity of the laws against crime, entailing the punishments and
sanctions against perpetuators of all act of crimes, should be appropriately gauged
in manner which posits that greater criminal offences attract greater
punishments and vice-versa. Financial crime would be the focus of this work.
Situations of such cases in this
vein is what I term “misfired penalties” which would have two opposite
instances discussed.
Misfired
penalties:
For stealing a ₦50,000 Sony Ericsson phone belonging to
Governor Rauf Aregbesola of Osun State, Nigeria, one 31-year-old Kelvin
Ighodalo was in April, 2013 sentenced to 45-years imprisonment by an Osogbo
High Court. But with this harsh punishment on Ighodalo, one would have had the
mindset that the fight against stealing and corruption in Nigeria is indeed
strong enough to muscle the economic terrorist off the face of the daily activities
in the West African nation, especially those freely committed by the politicians
and individuals at the top echelon across the various government parastatals, ministries
and agencies.
As
against the Ighodalo 45 year imprisonment earlier sited is that by a onetime
police top cop in 2005. Having
pleaded guilty to the corruption allegations to the tune of N12,861,570,098.00
(Twelve billion eight hundred and sixty one million, five hundred and seventy
thousand ninety eight naira “only”) against him, Tafa Balagun, the then
Inspector General of police was sentenced to six months imprisonment with a
fine of ₦500,000.00. Isn’t the war against corruption, theft and stealing in
Nigeria a comic in itself.
These opposite and incomparable examples earlier stated, stresses
the fact that in Nigeria, the level of punishments on acts of corruption is
indirectly related with the severity of punishments against this enemy of
economic posterity.
With similar cases subsequently stated in the course of this
work, one would understand why the loophole fight against corruption in the
country is nothing but a spur to its continuous occurrence, thus the higher the
corruption act, the lower the penalties meted.
Another case is the sentence of a LASTMA (Lagos State
Management Authority) official, one Mr. Andrew Bodukale, to four years
imprisonment without the option of fine for accepting a bribe of N10,000.
On the other hand, a former official of the Police Pension
Board, John Yakubu Yusufu, who had admitted to stealing N23bn from the coffers
of the Nigeria Police Pension Fund between 2008 and 2011 was only given a
two-year sentence on each of the three counts with an option of N750,000 fine,
an amount the convict was shamefully made to pay in order to regain his
freedom. Irrespective of both Bodukale and Yusufu’s being at 2 levels, state
and federal, it is pertinent to note that the law against financial crime and
stealing is indeed a losing battle which can steal be won, no wonder the Yusufu’s
case was widely posited to be a “travesty of justice.”
Away
from financial crime is kidnapping. The speed with which some states in Nigeria,
Abia, Akwa Ibom, Anambra, Enugu, Imo and Bayelsa passed new laws stipulating
death penalty for the crime of kidnapping as far as I am concerned would be
effective when such is passed against corruption too. A death penalty on
corruption would lead to efficiency in the allocation of resources for the good
of the society which would have a tripartite effect on the provision of social amenities/infrastructural facilities;
employment opportunities and a massive drop in criminal activities
notably kidnapping, armed robbery and a host of other “daredevil crimes”.
Ponder these…
At
this juncture, it is pivotal to state that criminal activities are freely done
because those in power and the “ogas at the top” are not living by example in
fighting the criminal activities they/their clique commit, a cliché that must be understood. In this vein, a cue should be taken from China
which exemplifies why an efficient law against financial crime, as evident in
the severity and harshness on punishments meted against its perpetuators is
pivotal in efficiently allocating the resources of the state.
To you
reading this that make laws (legislators), and would someday do, it is pivotal
you note that the gravity of murder committed as a result of kidnapping and
armed robbery etc, is nowhere compared to that committed by those in power and who
call the shots across the various agencies and parastatals of government simply
because stealing a nation’s wealth has instrumentally been the reason behind the
abject poverty in the land which in itself have left to many going hungry,
dying and of course left with the choice of taking up arms to be kidnappers,
armed robbers etc.
If
there is any law to be given the toughest and harshest penalty in Nigeria, it is
the various acts of financial crime, especially those committed by those in
power because the root to Nigeria being questionably unprosperous is hidden and
rooted in the failing war against corruption.
No
doubt, there is still time, though limited, for a revamp.
N27bn fraud: Lawyers, activists condemn lenient sentence - January 29, 2013
The Editorial Board
“Applying the death penalty in Nigeria” June 28, 2013
