Why We Cannot Curb Corruption

It is not unusual in our clime for judge on a salary of N500,000 per month to be discovered to have N500 million in his bank account plus several hundreds of thousands in hard currency – monies he could not explain their source – and all we would say is that there is no proof of corruption.

Pray, what other proof do we want?

Part of the problem we have with securing conviction on corruption cases in this country is traceable to the Common Law which we imported wholesale from the British legal system without modifying it to suit our own environment.

Part of the problem with Common Law is the legal requirement of “proof beyond reasonable doubt” before a conviction can be secured. In other words, an accused is considered innocent until proven guilty, even when we know for sure that they are culpable. The position of law, then, is what we can prove instead of what we know as a fact. This is why most culprits go scot free.

But perhaps obviously aware of the challenge of procuring “proof beyond reasonable doubt” the British legal system has safety net in tax administration system. If you are seen to be living a lifestyle far above your legitimate income and the prosecution cannot establish any case of illegality against you, the tax administration system sure will. And based on your tax records alone, you will have a case to answer.

This is the essential difference between them and us. We have neither a scrupulous and diligent legal system nor an efficient and effective tax administration. And that is why it is almost impossible to get a conviction on a corruption case in Nigeria.

A lawyer friend of mine told me that the French legal system does not have this problem. For the French, you are guilty until you prove yourself innocent. In order words, once a prima facie case has been established, the burden of “proof beyond reasonable doubt” rests on the accused, not on the prosecution.

The French model is in tandem with what I have been preaching over the years. We cannot successfully curb corruption in this country unless and until the onus of “proof beyond reasonable doubt” shifts from the prosecution to the accused.

The only way “proof beyond reasonable doubt” can be obtained in our clime is if an accused makes a video recording of himself in the process of committing the crime of corruption. or if he deliberately leaves traces of evidence, or willingly confesses to the crime – something we know will never happen.

It is no surprise therefore that the government is losing high profile corruption cases. The tragedy though is that we the ordinary people who are short-changed readily take side with the culprits.

We have a long way to go. History will be kind to a 74-year old Buhari, at least for making attempt to curb corruption, but it will not forgive us, the youth, for our timidity and complicity in thwarting justice.

In other climes, it is the duty of the youth to challenge corruption. But in ours? Your guess is as good as mine. Yet we want a better society.