Date: 2016-08-15

In one of his usual recriminations, Senate president, Abubakar Bukola Saraki claimed that he was not a pauper by the time he became governor of Kwara state with the support of a doting father he later turned against! No one disputes his claims that he amassed a fortune from selling salt and sugar to have been able to sustain a lifestyle that rubbished Aliko Dangote's famed wealth. If truth be told, Aliko Dangote has one or two things to learn from a man who acquired a dozen or so cars with a cumulative value in excess of a quarter of a Billion Naira from selling sugar and salt!

What the former governor is saying is that the people of Kwara state owe him a debt of gratitude for improving their lives. It is probably a sign of how meticulous he was as governor and a mark of the people's gratitude that Dr. Saraki now steals into town after the scare he got at a praying ground in Ilorin , last year. Today, the impoverished state and pauperized victims of the state who are too willing to display the scars of the Bukola Saraki era are still groaning under the burden of sustaining the fast-paced and jet-setting lifestyle of the former governor and members of his immediate family. How sad!

Dr. Saraki's successor, the ever-complaining and ever-insinuating Abdulfatah Ahmed, is at the mercy of a visibly angry citizenry and is single-handedly taking the flak that should be shared with his benefactor. It has been Maigida's dirty duty, for the past five years, to cover up the senseless pillaging of Kwara state by a reckless government in which he was an active participant. Therein lies the challenge before those who favour setting up of special courts to try corruption cases as the idea will most likely be shot down by former governor(s) who enriched and improved themselves at the expense of their states and later stole themselves into the National Assembly.

The idea of special courts was one of the unadvertised reasons why Mrs. Farida Waziri was thrown out of EFCC for canvassing. With special courts to try corruption cases, Nigerians would have been spared the opprobrium and recriminations of the senate president and chances are all the lazy senators in the Saraki-is-Right chorus, many of them with pending criminal cases, would have appreciated the saying that silence is golden instead of behaving so childishly and so odiously in support of a man accused of very serious criminal offences. Similarly, House speaker, Yakubu 'Jack' Dogara, would not have been so careless to declare that falsification of official document, one of the several synonyms for budget-padding, is alien to our laws and therefore, not a criminal offence.

Nigerians could not have forgotten John Yakubu Yusuf, a self-confessed felon, who got away with a mere slap on the wrist after confessing to stealing public funds estimated at anything between N23 billion and N32 billion. This felon, a modern version of Jack the Ripper and who ironically has the (dis) honour of answering to the names of three great prophets of God has been enjoying his loot after paying a ridiculous N750,000 fine, in lieu of an equally-ridiculous two-year jail term, imposed by a High Court judge!

In the wake of the judgment, some prominent lawyers drew the flak for interpreting it from the point of law. It was a ridiculous judgment but, from the point of law, the judge could not have gone outside the law to jail John Yakubu Yusuf for more than three years as prescribed by law since, wait for this, the man was wise enough not to have wasted the time of the court! Mind you, not to waste the time of the court, an accepted ingredient in law courts is for the accused to simply own up to their crime and, presto!, all he gets is a slap on the wrist. Plea-bargain is another way of not wasting the time of the court.

These are two strategies, two legal safety nets if you wish, that guarantee an accused person a hearty laugh outside the courtroom even if it leaves the people holding the short end of the stick! It is okay for John Yakubu Yusuf not to waste the time of the court but, despite its attraction, big-time politicians do not contemplate the action because it comes with the tag of ex-con that could be waved in their faces by political opponents. You now know why the strategies have not been used by politicians.

The import of the John Yakubu Yusuf case, which is still lost on Nigerians is that many things are wrong with our law books and which should be put right if nation is not to be seen to be wearing kid-gloves to fight a hydra-headed monster. This is stating the obvious because, by the colonial-era laws which the courts operate, to get one treasury-hijacker (apologies to President Muhammadu Buhari) behind bars will amount to seeking an oasis in the ocean. Point is, there is need to take a look at the law books.

Ordinarily, an unstained, people-oriented National Assembly should have spearheaded the effort as its own way of complementing the anti-graft war of the Federal Government. But, wait a minute, are we not making fools of ourselves to expect the National Assembly, as it is presently constituted, to enact stringent laws to tackle corruption? With some members of the National Assembly making endless trips to the EFCC because of pending corruption cases, it is unthinkable to imagine that such tainted lawmakers will support a strong anti-graft agency or support the establishment of special courts to try corruption cases.

By the way, can we, in all honesty, expect Dr. Bukola Saraki, who has been accused of false declaration of asset and, for forging official documents to back any law that could translate into long spell in the slammer for corrupt people? Or, do we expect 'Jack' Dogara who is so scared of his own shadow to the point of seeking a quick passage of an immunity clause into law and who declared that forgery or falsification of documents is not criminal to support a law that could mean more trouble for him? Any criminal who has looted enough to ensure a lifetime of unrestrained comfort even if he outlives Methuselah will fight tooth and nail to oppose laws capable of sending them to jail.

Relying on colonial-era laws to check treasury-hijackers leaves too much space for people who commit stomach-churning and morally-reprehensible crimes to escape justice. For now, all Nigerians can do is to await the outcome of effort of those charged with running our judicial system who seek more effective means of trying corruption cases. The start-off point is to urgently review of extant laws that do not require the input of a pliable National Assembly.

Magaji is based in Abuja, Nigeria, and can be reached at magaji777@yahoo.com.