Chief Olusegun Obasanjo |
Except for
the indecorous manner in which the words were traded, the accusation and
counter-accusation between former President Olusegun Obasanjo and the National
Assembly over allegations of corruption should be seen as a healthy development
for the polity if all are convinced that the war against the scourge must be
won by Nigeria.
To carry out
the fight against corruption in this manner, the abuse of privileges, positions
and the instruments of justice, such as the perpetual injunction, which courts
grant to plaintiff or accused, needs to be addressed. Which is why the plea by
the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC), to amend the EFCC Act to
extricate the commission from restriction imposed by perpetual injunction, is a
step in right direction.
The import
of that altercation between members of the House of Representatives and
Obasanjo is not about who is more corrupt than the other, but about the fact
that corruption is so serious a problem that those who know how infectiously
damaging and pestilential it is to the polity have treated, and are still
treating it with kids’ gloves. Rather than attack corruption from its roots,
they are pruning its branches, whilst the monstrosity continues to grow and
become firmly rooted. At the root of curbing corruption is not the making of
new laws, for it is said that a society is in jeopardy that creates too many
laws. The problem of tackling corruption is in the enforcement of the extant
laws, the enforcement of which is laden with legal obstacles.
Indeed anyone who so wishes to secure a perpetual injunction has a right to do so. As the Duhaime Law Dictionary puts it: “Where a plaintiff has established his legal right and the fact of its violation he is in general entitled as of course to a perpetual injunction to prevent the recurrence of the wrong, unless there is something special in the circumstances of the case.” But contrary to the belief that a perpetual injunction is an injunction that cannot be dissolved, the law dictionary posits inter alia: “Both perpetual and also interlocutory and interim injunctions may at any time be dissolved by the court by which they were granted, should it become appropriate to do so.”
Whilst we
acknowledge the noble intention of this legal principle to safeguard the right
and integrity of a person, and thereby effect justice, it is observable that in
practice, perpetual injunction is susceptible to abuse and dubious manipulation
as a convenient device to shield criminality. It is, therefore, pitiable that
some lawyers and jurists have converted it into a political device for
corruption. This is highly disturbing, for it questions the quality of people
who have made it their professional engagement to promote justice.
It is for
this reason that the Senate should be encouraged to amend the EFCC Act in a
manner that strengthens it against perpetual injunction. Strengthening the EFCC
Act against perpetual injunction would enlighten Nigerians about the
impermanent nature of the injunction. A perpetual injunction is not
unconditional. It can be revisited because entailed in the explanation of the
term is a condition that spells out the transient nature of that ruling – that
it may be dissolved at any time.
It would
also re-educate the ‘learned’ men and women about the ontological basis and
purpose of law: morality and justice respectively. Justice is a moral category,
for it is the principle that balances the society’s gauge of right and wrong.
It is at the centre of individual moral action. Justice, therefore, by its very
nature is antithetical to corruption. An action that promotes corruption cannot
undeniably be said to be a just one. That an action is construed as corrupt and
just at the same time stands on a warped sense of morality.
Whilst the
House of Representatives should be commended for raising the five ad-hoc
committees to combat corruption in ministries, departments and agencies, it is
important for the House to purge itself of the same cankerworm. It is also the
conviction of all Nigerians that the endemic nature of corruption demands a
revolutionary approach beyond routine duties. Nigerians must begin to respect the
law as the culmination of the ideas that seek to preserve the good and shun
evil. The sacrosanct nature of the law is a reason for the reverence accorded
to the law.
As Thomas
Aquinas, the erudite medieval scholar and natural law theorist, aptly captures
it, the law is a dictate of right reason promulgated by a constituted authority
for the common good. No law viewed in this light finds its personification in
any human being. No one who acknowledges the wisdom in the dictates of right
reason, respects constituted authorities (even if he or she be a part), and
seeks to serve the common good, would blatantly scheme to obviate the law.
The problem with the implementation of laws of the land is that Nigeria’s leaders, improperly, confuse their custodianship of, and duty to protect, the law as sitting over and above the law. Corruption thrives because perpetrators of corrupt practices are not only in power, they do not think they are accountable under the law, and when they are caught in breach of the law, they do not get punished.
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