By 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 strik-ing 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 reck-less squandering of public funds by some favoured political helmsmen to budget padding, crass impunity has remained the middle name of our democratic dispensa-tion, 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 sus-pects arrested in connection with violent attacks that have resulted in the killing spree in Benue State. In the statement is-sued under the platform of the Alliance on Surviving COVID-19 and Beyond (AS-CAB), of which he is the Chairman Falana lamented that although hundreds of sus-pects 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 Chris-topher Musa, for alleging that residents of Yelwata community provided shelter for the killers. He described the statement as an attempt to shift blame onto victims instead of addressing the systemic failures of security and governance.
Such a sordid situation triggers the burning questions. Is the life of the voice-less 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 hun-dreds of thousands of innocent souls to their early graves more valued than that of the defenceless citizens? What is so dif-ficult 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 regards to the way and manner some politicians squander public funds. Only recently there was disagree-ment 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 alle-gations about some of them awarded con-tracts without going through the fiscal poli-cy 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 eons.
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 Ef-fect, or died a Nigerian “natural death.” And as one warned back then 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 patently obvious.
These days we read about the humun-gous amounts, even in dollars found stashed in the private vaults of some for-mer public office holders. From local gov-ernment 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 fowls and goats are either sent behind bars or hounded to hell!
It speaks volumes about how those in government interpret words such as ac-countability, probity and transparency. It demeans us all as a people that those vest-ed with the sacred trust of holding the des-tiny of men and materials of a country as vast as Nigeria are allowed to go Scot-free after committing various heinous crimes against the state. No one talks about the $12 billion Gulf War windfall again be-cause 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-aggrandize-ment. But years later some of them have the audacity 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 be-cause of the insidious culture of impunity
As it was between 2015 and 2023, one is not surprised, therefore, that some corrupt politicians who defected from the PDP to the ruling APC are surreptitiously enjoy-ing some ignoble immunity. It has hap-pened before. All of these make a mock-ery of our judiciary process. Many of the proceedings are centuries away from the Information Technology and Communica-tion(ICT) age as obsolete type – writers are still used for recording purpose. Series of laughable injunctions take over the well scripted drama of the absurd, character-ized 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 gov-ernment; 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, noth-ing meaningful comes out of it.
To several of those accused of such fi-nancial misdemeanor Nigeria is one big, slumbering elephant to be milked dry. And the easiest way to have a piece of the na-tional cake is to get elected or appointed into any plum political post. But for how long can we go on this way? Not much lon-ger, I dare say.
Corruption, which is a debasement of set moral values and a violation of stan-dard 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 po-litico-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 administra-tion in 2017 so I do now to the President Bola Tinubu-led government. To shame all critics he must muster the political will, backed with 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.”