DEEPENING DEMOCRAZY: Law of the Rulers

The judgment of justice Awokulehin dismissing the 170-count charges against James Ibori purportedly for lack of evidence is another sad reminder that we are living in a regime of the law of the (corrupt) rulers rather the rule of law.

Indeed, since the inauguration of the present regime, a noticeable loss of momentum in the government's anti-corruption crusade has become obvious of particular concern is the prosecutorial powers of the attorney-general of the federation, vis-à-vis the functions of anti-corruption agencies, namely: economic and financial crimes commission (EFCC), independent corrupt practices and other related offences commission (ICPC) and the code of conduct bureau and tribunal which indicate a desire by the executive to exercise political control over anti-corruption cases.

It appears that the language of the rule of law is used to under-mine the efficacy of a number of corruption trials in our courts for political reasons.

The resort to plea bargain in the case of ex-governor lucky Igbinedion of Edo state is particularly instructive for a little criminal record and a small cheque of 3.5 million naira, he left the court for his house rather than prison the principle of the rule of law is about the dispensation of justice. It affirms equality of all before the law and the primacy of established procedures in adjudication. The rule of law cannot be the basis for the inability of the state to successfully prosecute public officials that have looted the treasury.

The government parrots the rule of law principle while slowing down, discontinuing or even subverting the trial of corrupt public officials. The central problem in Nigeria is that for almost thirty years, perpetrators of grand corruption have been very effective in using the strict interpretation of procedures within the Nigerian legal system to enjoy immunity against conviction for their corrupt action in its first four years of existence, the EFCC under Mallam Nuhu Ribadu had introduced a new approach that allowed EFCC to achieve considerable success in prosecuting public corruption.

The successes are partly due to the enabling law which allows the courts to place limits on interminable injunctions by street wise and pedantic lawyers, the EFCC was also able to use specially selected and trained judges to achieve success. The success of the EFCC is however tainted by the very selective process of picking on perceived enemies of the then president as main targets of prosecution.

The EFCC was to a large extent disrespectful of the principles of the rule of law in its operations and constantly violated them. To remove then governor of plateau state for example, the EFCC arrested the members of the house of assembly, released a minority group that agreed to impeach the governor and organised the impeachment by the minority under the menace of armoured tanks placed before the house of assembly and kept the majority group in detention.

I believe that we cannot institutionalise the anti-corruption struggle without respecting the rule of law at the same time, government cannot be allowed to use the principle of respect for rule of law to cripple the capacity of anti-corruption agencies to successfully prosecute corrupt public officials. the danger is that public officials appear to believe that rule of law is a devise for the return of impunity for public officials involved in grand cor-ruption.in the united kingdom, the place of origin of our common law tradition, the judicial system allows for successful prosecution of corruption British judges have been able to balance the tradition of the strict inter-pretation of procedure by introducing the principle of equitable remedy and therefore returning to the merit of the case in delivering their judgments.

Nigerian jurisprudence can learn considerable lessons from this dimension of the British tradition in reviving the capacity of our courts to successfully prosecute cases of corruption. Nigeria is clearly facing a cri-sis of confidence in the ability of our legal system to effectively handle anti-corruption cases.

We know however that in other common law countries, their judicial systems are able to effective handle anti-corruption cases.

It is therefore imperative that we research into what is wrong in the Nigerian tradition and what is right in the other systems that accounts for the difference. In other common law jurisdictions, lawyers are not allowed to subvert the course of justice by obtaining interminable injunctions to slow down cases, they are not allowed to continuously challenge the right of prosecutorial agencies to carry out their statutory functions. Also, the administration of justice does not encumber anti-corruption efforts.

The respect for the rule of law is critical to the anti-corruption campaign and good governance, emphasis on respect for the rule of law cannot however be used to whittle down the tempo of anti-corruption efforts and campaign as we are currently witnessing.