Should corruption be made a crime against humanity?
As the world marks the International Day on Anti-Corruption, the pronouncement by the Court of Appeal, Abuja Division on November 16 that corruption is a crime against humanity that should attract capital punishment still reverberates.
A panel of justices of the appellate court made strong comparisons of corruption with crimes against humanity like other serious and violent crimes such as genocide, terrorism and large-scale violation of human rights that have widespread devastating and destabilising impact on the society.
This is as the United Nations Secretary General, Antonio Guterres, in his speech on the UN International Day on AntiCorruption on Sunday described corruption as “an assault on the values of the United Nations.”
“It robs societies of schools, hospitals and other vital services; drives away foreign investments and strips nations of their natural resources,” he said.
It is estimated that one trillion dollars are paid in bribes annually, while another 2.6 trillion are stolen; all due to corruption, according to the UN report.
Also, in a statement, Transparency International advocates that the people should fight back because corruption impacts the poorest and most vulnerable in society the hardest.
“It is ordinary citizens who suffer most when the corrupt steal funds intended for public services like infrastructure, healthcare and education, or take backhanders to award lucrative contracts to their cronies,” he said.
The Court of Appeal panel of justices comprising Justice Emmanuel Akomaye Agim, Justice Abdu Aboki and Justice Adamu Jauro made the pronouncement in the post-sentence appeal by former governor of Taraba State, Jolly Tevoru Nyame against the Federal Republic of Nigeria.
In drawing a parallel between offences attracting capital punishment and corruption, the Court of Appeal panel wondered why such punishment through legislation should meted to convicted of the public till.
“There is no justification for imposing capital punishment for serious crimes like murder, armed robbery with very restricted impact and punishing a more serious crime like public office corruption, which from experience, has more widespread and destabilising impact on society, by the terms of imprisonment prescribed in sections 115, 119, 309 and 315 of the Penal Code Act.
“These punishments cannot be sufficient deterrence. But the courts are bound by law not to exceed the terms of imprisonment not be pilferers prescribed by a penal statute as the punishment for the offences it has created,” Justice Agim said.
In a message to mark the UN International Day on AntiCorruption, the President of the Nigerian Bar Association (NBA), Paul Usoro (SAN), who noted the damaging impact of corruption in our society, said the anticorruption agencies should adopt proactive strategies in the anti-corruption fight.
“The deleterious consequences of corruption stare us in the face in Nigeria. 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, 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.
“We see the effects and consequences of corruption in the suffocating poverty amongst our people and indeed, in the pervasive insecurity of lives and property. Recently, the Brookings Institution released a report that shows that Nigeria, with an estimated population of 200 million people has overtaken India with a population of 1,324 billion people, as the nation with the highest number of extremely poor people. That, indeed, should worry all of us,” he said.
For his part, Hamid Ajibola Jimoh stated that making corruption a capital offence is a decision for the legislature and not the judiciary. He however added that if corruption is penalized with capital punishment then it would have wider impact on the society.
“That means majority of our politicians and other citizens will be sentenced to death because there are different aspects of corruption. If that happens, it would bastardise our courts because so many cases would be filed,” he said.