Plans are afoot by the Nigerian government to set up anti-corruption tribunals across the country.
These special judicial bodies will be located in all the six geopolitical zones of the country and will be staffed by judges at the level of appeal court arbitrators. Already, a technical committee headed by a respected retired judge of the Supreme Court has been set up and it will commence work very soon.
The Nigerian president, Muhammadu Buhari won the 2015 polls on a tough anti-corruption platform and so far many prominent Nigerians have been arrested and charged to court. A lot of illegal monies have also been confiscated. There is certainly improvement in the sanity of government spending, especially with the introduction of the Treasury Single Account, a consolidated financial platform that allows for greater monitoring of government revenue and expenditure but many feel he has not done enough. His critics also say that most of the high profile corruption busts involved members of the opposition. Vendetta and bias may not be all that apparent here as the opposition is made up mainly of politicians that belong to the Peoples Democratic Party, the body that ruled the country for sixteen years and under whose watch most of the brazen cases of corruption took place. However many of these politicians defected from the PDP into the present ruling party and there is widespread resentment the law has been tardy in catching up with them.
However the jailing this week of a prominent member of the ruling party has suddenly given the much needed fillip to the fight against corruption. Reverend Jolly Nyame, the governor who ruled the north-eastern state of Taraba for eight years under the platform of the PDP but later defected to the ruling party, was found culpable of various charges bordering on high graft and was sentenced to fourteen years in jail. Buhari is very keen to build on this notable success and sees the proposed tribunals as the most viable means to consolidate on his anti-corruption mandate now that elections are fast approaching. The seeming slow pace of the fight against corruption can be traced to the conventional courts. Cases are many and trials are very laborious processes. Judges will also have to deal with other types of litigation and setting up special courts that deal solely with corruption cases will fast-track trial and punishment.
Recall that when the president seized power in a 1983 military putsch, he set up similar tribunals to deal with corrupt politicians and many of them ended up being jailed as long as 155 years. The fate that had just befallen Rev Nyame brings up faint echoes of those tough punishments.
However there are fears in government quarters setting up such special anti-corruption tribunals will have to pass though the national assembly, a body known for its high antagonism to the present executive, and there is every likelihood the move will be shot down by legislators. However, the government is undaunted and top officials are already sounding out the Chief Justice, Walter Omoghen on the ways the national assembly could be bypassed in setting up the tribunals.
These special judicial bodies will be located in all the six geopolitical zones of the country and will be staffed by judges at the level of appeal court arbitrators. Already, a technical committee headed by a respected retired judge of the Supreme Court has been set up and it will commence work very soon.
The Nigerian president, Muhammadu Buhari won the 2015 polls on a tough anti-corruption platform and so far many prominent Nigerians have been arrested and charged to court. A lot of illegal monies have also been confiscated. There is certainly improvement in the sanity of government spending, especially with the introduction of the Treasury Single Account, a consolidated financial platform that allows for greater monitoring of government revenue and expenditure but many feel he has not done enough. His critics also say that most of the high profile corruption busts involved members of the opposition. Vendetta and bias may not be all that apparent here as the opposition is made up mainly of politicians that belong to the Peoples Democratic Party, the body that ruled the country for sixteen years and under whose watch most of the brazen cases of corruption took place. However many of these politicians defected from the PDP into the present ruling party and there is widespread resentment the law has been tardy in catching up with them.
However the jailing this week of a prominent member of the ruling party has suddenly given the much needed fillip to the fight against corruption. Reverend Jolly Nyame, the governor who ruled the north-eastern state of Taraba for eight years under the platform of the PDP but later defected to the ruling party, was found culpable of various charges bordering on high graft and was sentenced to fourteen years in jail. Buhari is very keen to build on this notable success and sees the proposed tribunals as the most viable means to consolidate on his anti-corruption mandate now that elections are fast approaching. The seeming slow pace of the fight against corruption can be traced to the conventional courts. Cases are many and trials are very laborious processes. Judges will also have to deal with other types of litigation and setting up special courts that deal solely with corruption cases will fast-track trial and punishment.
Recall that when the president seized power in a 1983 military putsch, he set up similar tribunals to deal with corrupt politicians and many of them ended up being jailed as long as 155 years. The fate that had just befallen Rev Nyame brings up faint echoes of those tough punishments.
However there are fears in government quarters setting up such special anti-corruption tribunals will have to pass though the national assembly, a body known for its high antagonism to the present executive, and there is every likelihood the move will be shot down by legislators. However, the government is undaunted and top officials are already sounding out the Chief Justice, Walter Omoghen on the ways the national assembly could be bypassed in setting up the tribunals.
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President Muhammadu Buhari. |
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