A former legislator, Hon. Barnabas Ejuku Abiodun has disagreed with the position of erudite lawyer, Robert Clarke SAN on corruption.
Reacting to an interview granted The Punch Newspapers by Clarke where he referred to Nigerians as crooks and insinuated that death sentences won’t stop corruption as it is in the blood of Nigerians, Abiodun averred that official malfeasance is alien to Nigerian culture.
“Corruption in governance is alien to our society before the coming of the colonialists. Our people had the fear of God, they were compassionate, cared for the poor and needy ones in the society and law abiding.
“For example, that the traditional way of administration of the old Oyo Empire, met on ground by the colonialists was structured to discourage abuse of office by the Kings and the Chiefs who were set over different aspects of Administration. The Kings ruled under the checks and balances of the Kingmakers who had the traditional powers to remove them should any be found guilty of abuse of office or corruption. So also is the Chiefs who were required to swear by the gods while taking their oaths of offices and the fear of the wrath of the gods kept them in check and imposed on them moral uprightness. So where in the history of our people has corruption been so enthrenched that it is in the DNA? Certainly none.
“Our people being whom they were in their aboriginal nature were never likely to be corrupt by nature. How could that ever be when even the first recorded prison in the area known as Nigeria today was built by the British in 1820? How could a people living in a society without a prison be tagged as being corrupt and that corruption running in their DNA when there were hardly any offenders to punish? Is that not an indication that our traditional society had a well organized system of laws and order?
“Let it also be noted that the first incidence of armed robbery in the area called Nigeria today happened after the independence, an indication that something went fundamentally wrong somewhere.
“Our people don’t have the history of forcefully taking what does not belong to them and if a dispute arises about ownership of anything be it property or land, the gods were there to settle and do justice without rancour unlike what we have in the judiciary today where justice is for sale to the highest bidder, delayed, introduction of technicalities to pervert and deny to the common man justice. Where Judges allegedly receive ‘Order from Above’ to swing the pendulum of justice in favour of ‘Government Interest’? What a system!,” he said.
Abiodun noted that without over-flogging, the various ethnic groups making up Nigeria today were conscripted into a nation they never bargained for by the amalgamation of 1914 as they had to take up new identities, live under new laws and therefore losing their moral values and identity.
“Hence, a Yoruba man who by nature used to be morally upright, a carrier of his family’s good name would hide under the name of Nigeria and its laws to behave badly and escape its consequences because Nigeria has no system that guarantees the induction of moral values on the citizens unlike the system bequeathed to us by our ancestors. Ditto with Igbos and Hausas.”
Hon Barnabas further noted that Nigeria is the reason why its citizens are now corrupt.
“Nigeria has no system that instils moral values, it is not fair and just to its citizens, it treats one with kid gloves while it chastises the other with acrimony. The leaders only see it as a piece cake that they are opportuned to take their own slice, it encourages ethnicity and nepotism and all the ethnic groups are in a conscious competition of who controls the resources to the advantage of his ethnic group above others. It is a system that marginalizes the minorities, honour and set rich thieves free while they despise the poor thief and send him to jail with two sets of laws; one for the rich and the other for the poor.
On the issue of death penalty as a punishment for corruption, if proposed and approved, he said it will be the best thing to happen to Nigeria’s anti corruption law but he advised that it be administered strictly by ammending the Constitution to remove the powers granting Mr President and Governors to grant pardon to prisoners on death row from the constitution as it will prevent the politicians from having constitutional backing to free corrupt cronies who have been convicted of corruption and awaiting execution.
Hon Barnabas concluded that Nigeria is responsible for the reason why its people are corrupt and not that corruption is in the blood of Nigerians. He submitted that restructuring of Nigeria is the only solution to give way for the evolution of a corrupt free society that will guarantee good governance and rapid development of its constituents.
