EFCC, CORRECTIONAL SERVICES AND OTHERS

Our institutions should be held to account, writes Joshua J. Omojuwa

How much does it cost to strike off a money laundering charge? If the trends are correct, just N15m. If you get convicted for a lesser crime, with just N3m, you could avoid jail altogether if you can afford to pay for your private residence. The issue with these conversations with respect to our justice system is not whether the allegations against the EFCC officials and the Correctional officers are true or not, it is that they are so believable, hardly anyone is giving either organisation the benefit of the doubt.

That is the tragedy of how far so much cynicism has been built into the Nigerian psyche. Everyone believes nothing is impossible and if the news reports through the years are anything to go by, some crazier things than the above have been seen to happen in Nigeria.

We are often angered by the symptoms of our democratic paradoxes, when in truth we ought to be more concerned about the roots of its failings. So then, data and energy will be expended on trading blames and accusations, until the next trending topic kicks in and then everyone moves on. The systemic problems continue to grow roots, branches and build depth across the system. If we aren’t such a country so used to anomalies, this report of a citizen having their charges wiped off for a fee and the same person getting to avoid seeing jail because they paid another sum should shock everyone to the marrow. True or not, who is shocked?

The EFCC. Set up to help rid Nigeria of economic and financial crimes has seen its integrity repeatedly called to question. Is it still the clean and agile organization it was once deemed to be?

The Judiciary – the merchants of Justice – the last hope of the ordinary citizen when all others fail, at least on paper. These days, hardly so as the system appears to have bent into different expectations of the whims of the rich, powerful and influential.

Unfortunately, we all pay for these failings of our institutions. Powerful or weak, rich or poor, every Nigeria has had to make decisions about their lives in a way that they would not have to if the system was trusted to work for all. At the lowest level, when the poor are deprived of power, the rich must account for inverters and power generators. When one class must deal with the ordeal of crime, the other must move in fear, even amidst the presence of bodyguards or security officers.

We unfortunately attempt every solution under the heavens except the one solution that ensures we are all better off collectively.

Whilst it is often easy to blame those in government at any point in time for these shortcomings and anomalies, the truth is, we have all contributed to the state of Nigeria as it is. Some, more than the other.

Nigerian investigative journalist, Fikayo Soyombo said it best in a post on X, “You didn’t know people with EFCC cases sometimes paid their way out of trouble? You didn’t know inmates sometimes stayed in hotels or tastefully furnished apartments while serving out their prison sentences? You don’t know that magistrates sometimes pronounced that accused persons should be “remanded in custody”, only for court officials to ‘help’ them perfect their bail conditions within a few hours such that they end up sleeping in their homes same day rather than in prison? You don’t know that while serving a prison sentence, you can drink, smoke weed, have sex, party and have the time of your life? You’re not aware you can go to prison and subsequently obliterate your prison records, as though you were never convicted? You don’t know that some of those comments you read on Twitter and Facebook are made from inside prison cells? You don’t know that if you possess one or all of money, power and influence, you can bypass the Nigerian justice system notwithstanding whatever pronouncements were made in court? So, what do you really know about your country, then?”

The issue though isn’t that people do not know that these things happen. It is that we have come to accept them as our way of life. Indulging in some form of verbal dance, pretending to debate them when the news goes viral, delving into accusations and counteraccusations, to be followed by insults…everything until the next viral news. A cycle of actions and activities without substance or credible attempts to demand for change or better.

As lawyers trade letters and parties exchange words, let us remember that this is not the issue itself. The real issue here is the system that makes it easy for these accusations to be deemed as almost normal and expected. When all is said and done, in this specific matter, there will be losers and winners. However, without a commitment towards seeing to the root of these accusations by the authorities involved, Nigeria will move on again.

Moving on here, an acceptance that indeed the EFCC can be accused of the gravest depths of corruption and be seen by many to be guilty of same. That the Correctional Service can choose who gets to be corrected from the comfort of private residences or the prisons. These questions are bigger than the individuals involved and must be seen to be so.

We do know though that we will likely miss the point. This is a call to institutional reforms. Whilst the individuals involved look to defend their positions, as they should, this is beyond them. It is about so much more. If those who ought to uphold justice and ensure everyone does right by the state are themselves agents of corruption, what chances have we got as a country?

The conversation has since evolved from a call to the integrity of the EFCC and the Correctional Services to that of individuals. That’s expected because it is easier to point fingers at individuals. Expected or not, our institutions must be held to account, now and always.

 Omojuwa is chief strategist, Alpha Reach/BGX Publishing