Time to end media trials
The war against corruption of the present government suffered severe set-backs recently with a flurry of court rulings dismissing cases against allegedly corrupt individuals. The most perplexing of the cases was the one against the former minister of Niger Delta, Godsday Orubebe, who was accused of diverting N2 billion. But the Abuja high court in Apo rightly dismissed the six count charge of contract fraud against Orubebe by the Independent Corrupt Practices and Other Related Offences Commission (ICPC) when the courts confirmed that the N1,965,576,153.46, which Orubebe allegedly diverted, “has not been expended, but is awaiting further contract decisions and directives from the ministry of Niger-Delta Affairs”.
It was obvious all along that the trial was a phantom one. We recall that last year the prosecution made a mess of itself when called upon to present its case. The prosecution team was not prepared for the trail and its witnesses were not ready, yet it rushed to arraign Orubebe for trial.
How could an anti-corruption agency charge an individual to court for corruption when it has neither investigated nor prepared evidence against the individual?
In many ways, the Orubebe case typifies how we fight corruption in Nigeria. Since the return to democratic governance in 1999, successive governments have realised the importance of creating the perception that they are serious about fighting corruption. They know how negatively Nigerians view corruption and how badly Nigerians yearn for leaders with the political will to fight and eliminate corruption from the country. So successive regimes try to outdo themselves by posturing to fight corruption; thus crude, rash, aggressive, and ultimately unsuccessful measures are usually employed just to demonstrate to hapless Nigerians that the war on corruption is real and serious. A core aspect of this strategy is to publicise these arrests, extract and publicise dubious confessional statements obtained mostly under duress, arraign, try and convict suspects on the pages of the newspaper or on television. But few of these publicised cases will ever stand the simple test of legal scrutiny.
We recall how in 2005, former president Obasanjo commandeered radio and television stations to make a prime-time broadcast, accusing then Senate President, Adolphus Wabara, six other lawmakers, the minister of education, Fabian Osuji, the permanent secretary and five other directors in the ministry of demanding and giving a bribe of N55 million naira in order to increase the ministry’s budget. He promptly fired Osuji, suspended the civil servants and referred all of them to the Economic and Financials Crime Commission and the Independent Corrupt Practices and other related commission for onward prosecution.
The publicity and praise for the ‘anti-corruption war’ of the former President was unprecedented. Nigerians and foreigners alike praised Obasanjo to high heavens and condemned the corrupt officials. The Nigerian media, for weeks, analysed the matter with most passing the ‘guilty’ verdict on the accused. Very few, if any, bothered to question the motive of the president and why he had to be the prosecutor and judge on the same case.
But alas, the allegations have not been proved till this day. When the civil servants were investigated by the Federal Civil Service Commission prior to their being disciplined and sent for trial, they were found innocent. None of them was charged to court for the alleged offence and they all returned to their duty posts. For the six lawmakers charged to court, none of them was convicted. The cases were all thrown out of courts for lack of evidence.
We are not in any way suggesting that those accused are all innocent or that corruption is not rife in the country. Far from it. Our main concern is that the agencies saddled with the task of investigating and prosecuting cases of corruption are usually not up to the task. A hallmark of our anti-corruption wars is that investigation and prosecution of suspect is so shoddily and shamefully done that it becomes virtually impossible to convict accused persons.
In climes like the United Kingdom and the United States, governments invest in diligent investigation of suspects and only arraign them when there is strong evidence that could support conviction. What is more, they diligently and vigorously prosecute such cases and, in most cases, succeed in securing convictions.
The key, as usual, is the dexterity, hard work, and diligence put into the investigation and prosecution of offenders and the efficient non-corrupt court system in those countries.
However, in Nigeria, shoddy investigation, lazy prosecution and a disorganised and compromised judiciary have combined to make nonsense of the justice system.
No wonder then that while someone like James Ibori, the former governor of Delta State, was discharged and acquitted on an almost 160 count of corruption and mismanagement of public funds in Nigeria, he pleaded guilty to avoid trial on similar offences in the United Kingdom.
We must state that the most effective way to secure conviction of corrupt individuals is through diligent and thorough investigation and prosecution, coupled with the presence of an efficient, reliable and a firm court system that is not susceptible to manipulation. Media trials may excite the populace and damage the reputation of the accused, but they do not count and cannot secure conviction of the accused.