Corruption shouldn’t be trivialised for political advantage – Soyinka

Playwright and social critic, Prof. Wole Soyinka, has urged
those saddled with the responsibility of administering justice for
social order not to trivialise corruption to score ‘dismissive
political points.’

He stated this in a statement on Tuesday titled, “Trivialise
corruption, Neutralise justice.”

The Nobel laureate said it was heartening news that some 20
‘concerned lawyers’ came together to undertake the mission of
cleaning up the Augean stables that seemed to pass for the Nigerian
judiciary.

He said, “Some of us do need an institution to which we can look
up, of which we should even live in awe. Some find that in
religious institutions, others in traditional fixtures, some even
in family and so on. All agree that the Order of Justice is a
pre-eminent candidate for collective regard and even
self-regulation. No matter, we all know that, without justice,
society unravels at the seams, and its citizens resort to
self-help.

“I feel especially exercised by recent happenings within that
body currently from a dominant perspective: it has become
increasingly fashionable to sneer at any anti-corruption
preoccupation. No, no one actually ever goes so far as to condone
corruption. Perish the thought! Gradually however, the nation’s
psyche is being both subtly and brazenly retuned to accept not
simply corruption as the norm of social relationships, but its
heightened product, impunity, as a national emblem. The
justification? The machinery that was launched against corruption
with such fanfare, it is claimed, has run aground. Selectivity has
been cited as proof. Insincerity, non-seriousness, cynical
distractions are routine assessments of the current governmental
campaign. Even the heady draught of ‘stomach infrastructure’ – ‘na
anti-corruption we go chop?’ is now applauded, accompanied by
guffaws wherever decanted.

“Not surprising then, that it was only a matter of time before
the flagbearer of one of the ‘parties to beat’ came out openly to
dismiss the punitive option, delivering the promise of amnesty as
one of the corner-stones of his plans for the nation.”

Noting that it was election time and issues normally generalised
take on enhanced desperation, he added that a recent image stuck to
the mind, and for it, Nigerians must be thankful to that
desperation born of elections.

He stated that impunity covers all crimes, not just material
corruption and any social or governance institution which, through
act or negligence, failed to stem the tide of criminality within
its charge.

“This has been the case of President (Muhammadu) Buhari in his
lacklustre, indeed hands-off approach to the menace of the killer
herdsmen – at least at the beginning, before swathes of Nigeria
were reduced to slaughter fields, thriving farms erased off the
food supply chain of the nation.

“Impunity stalks the land, indeed it is virtually lording it all
social interstices. Let no one take my word for it – simply turn
the pages of the media any day. Impunity’s ravages churn the mind.
Somehow, this nation – and here again we turn to our learned
friends – this nation generally failed to recognise, much less
learn from the murder and enabling implications of the unsolved
murder of Bola Ige, the nation’s Attorney-General and Minister of
Justice. The Bar Association accepted the casual disposition of its
erstwhile captain and has – understandably perhaps? – moved
on….”

Soyinka said he brought up the murder of Ige principally to
exclaim that “history strikes again” and also to decry the
unbelievably short memory span of Nigerians.

He said, “Amnesia is often a contrived tactic of escapism,
which, to put it bluntly, is another word for moral cowardice. I
have brought it up principally to remind the judiciary, and
associate orders such as the (Nigerian) Bar Association, that the
war between impunity and justice is an incessant one. Corruption is
not a trait to be trivialised for political opportunism or
locker-room guffaws. Corruption murdered the nation’s Minister of
Justice and Attorney-General, and justice was rendered helpless in
the defence of its own prime advocate. The reign of impunity will
prevail as long as the legal community continues to betray its
calling, its oath of office, even its rites of professional
collegiality and its responsibility to the rest of us.

“It is disappointing that even under a government that promised
to dust up the files of political murders and end that reign of
homicidal impunity, the association has not thought fit to demand
from the Buhari government its findings. There is more than ample
material to warrant a judicial commission, and that demand has come
up again and again. It will continue for as long as there remains a
shred of conscience somewhere in this nation, especially when
provoked into resurgence by the antics of those who murdered
justice to enthrone corruption and bask in the miasma of
impunity.”

“As always, election time brings out the worst of animalism in
political participants. Justice was betrayed on that edition,
repudiated, hung up to dry, and the door left wide open for
commissioned killers. Bola Ige, Senior Advocate of Nigeria, died in
the line of duty. Justice Salami at least survived the rites of
passage.

“The government at the time of Ige’s killers knows the truth.
That government protected -I repeat- protected, and rewarded his
killers. Those who wish to dispute this had better first immerse
themselves in the circumstances of that murder, and the
unconstitutional, indeed illegal trajectory of the principal
accused, one that not only facilitated his unconstitutional
participation in the ensuing election but catapulted him straight
to the occupancy of the seat that had been kept warm for him during
his trial and absence. On release, he was ushered straight into the
slot of Chairman of the Appropriation Committee of the House of
Representatives. That was not all.

The head of that government, General Olusegun Obasanjo,
proceeded to burnish Ige’s memory with characteristic zeal. With
that victim in no position to defend himself, that inveterate
letter-writer sent a reference letter to Ige’s new abode – just in
case there are ministries of power over yonder: “We put Bola Ige
there to rectify the power situation. It turned out that he did not
know his left hand from his right.”

Saying Ige’s murder took place at election time, Soyinka said
once again, the nation was confronted with another election, while
killings and kidnappings had escalated.

The convener, Citizen Forum, said a political association which
he once described as a den of killers was regrouping and wishing to
direct Nigeria’s fortunes yet again.

“This nation needs no reminding that, yes indeed, the rule of
law must prevail, and constitutionality must not be trivialised.
Neither however, must criminality, or else, history merely repeats
itself in increasingly dismal accents. Justice becomes
neutralised,” he said.