As Nigeria commemorates the international anti-corruption day, the Nigeria Bar Association (NBA) has called on Nigerians to stand up against corruption in all its ramifications.
The President of the NBA, Paul Usoro(SAN), who spoke on Monday to mark the day, said it was the responsibility of all Nigerians to fight corruption to a standstill, adding that, “We must refuse to give bribes for favours; we must reject corruptive and corrosive proposals and arrangements.
“We must blow whistles on bribe-takers and the practitioners of other forms of corruption, to wit, impunity in public service, abuse of prosecutorial powers, intimidation, blackmail and harassment of our judges, administrative malfeasance, political non-accountability and lack of transparency in the various facets of our country’s administration and management.
“The fight against corruption must not be left to or for our governments alone. We must, as individuals and citizens, also take our stand against corruption in all its ramifications. Only then, can we begin to reap the rewards and benefits of our abundant wealth, both in human and material resources”, he said.
The umbrella of lawyers in the country noted that corruption is multi-faceted even though attention is mostly focused on financial and economic corrupt practices.
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The conducts that qualify as corruption, the NBA boss noted, extends beyond financial and economic practices and encompass fraud, embezzlement, illicit financial flows, administrative malfeasance, mismanagement of public resources, political non-accountability, absence of transparency and impunity in public service.
Enumerating the dire consequences of corruption in Nigeria, Usoro said, “We see it in the uncompleted developmental projects that dot our landscape, in all the nooks and crannies of this country, even though the costs of and consideration for those projects had, in a number of cases been paid out, sometimes, in full; we see the consequences of corruption in the lack of basic necessities that our citizens should take for granted such as but not limited to potable water, affordable healthcare, particularly given the wealth of Nigeria.
“We see it in the decay in and of our institutions, educational, infrastructure, health, literally all our institutions, notwithstanding the enormous material and human resources that the Almighty has blessed us with”.
Usoro said Nigerians see the effects and consequences of corruption in the suffocating poverty amongst the people, in the pervasive insecurity of lives and property which has now extended to the kidnap of judicial officers.
The NBA boss praised President Muhammad Buhari for his consistency in fighting corruption, right from his first term in office, saying, “That is commendable. The fight must however not be selective or discriminatory in nature; it must not even be perceived to be selective or discriminatory.
“The trial of persons for corrupt practices must itself not be tainted with corruption. Media trial of persons charged with corrupt practices, for example, amount to corruption itself. Indeed, those orchestrated media trials degrade and corrupt the justice administration system.
“Apart from the incalculable (but obviously intended) damage that it does to persons who may ultimately be discharged and acquitted, it is a corrupt practise to use as license or hide under the cover of the fight against corruption to recklessly destroy the names, characters and reputations of persons who have not been found guilty of corrupt practices by competent courts and who may ultimately be pronounced innocent of such charges”, Usoro stated.
He equally cautioned against abuse of prosecutorial powers, which according to him is one of the worst forms of corruption, noting also that intimidation, blackmail, harassment and coercion of judicial officers in order to secure pre-determined judgments amount to injustice.
“Indeed, the subversion of justice by any means whatsoever amounts to extreme corruption. The corruption of our criminal justice system is indeed exemplified by the index we use to measure our success in the fight against corruption, to wit, the number of convictions that are secured and the volume of assets that are purportedly recovered.
“By using these as our primary index for determining our success in fighting corruption, we set targets that induce corruption and abuse of prosecutorial rights. We thereby make a statement that the end justifies the means and, in the process, encourage and advocate for convictions and purported recovery of assets, no matter how crooked and corrupt.
“The end result is that we pay more attention to and celebrate these corrosive and corruptive processes while giving scant attention and regard to proactive measures that could actually stem and block the avenues for corruption”, he noted.