Institute for Tourism Professionals charges stakeholders on capacity development

Institute for Tourism Professionals charges stakeholders on capacity development

Affinity Libra Ltd is working in partnership and cooperation with the Institute for Tourism Professionals. I am a Fellow of the Institute.

The Apotheos-ification of Nigerian Leaders and Political Elites

Apotheosis (from Greek, apotheoun "to deify"; in Latin deificatio "making divine"; also called divinization and deification) is the glorification of a subject to divine level. The term has meanings in theology, where it refers to a belief, and in art, where it refers to a genre (Wikipaedia).

In theology, the term apotheosis refers to the idea that an individual has been raised to godlike stature. In art, the term refers to the treatment of any subject (a figure, group, locale, motif, convention or melody) in a particularly grand or exalted manner.

A cult of personality arises when an individual uses mass media, propaganda, or other methods, to create an idealized, heroic, and, at times god-like public image, often through unquestioning flattery and praise. A cult of personality is similar to hero worship, except that it is established by mass media and propaganda.

Throughout history, monarchs and heads of state were almost always held in enormous reverence. Through the principle of the divine right of kings, for example, rulers were said to hold office by the will of God. Imperial China, ancient Egypt, Japan, Britain, the royals, the Inca, the Aztecs, Tibet, Thailand, and the Roman Empire are especially noted for redefining monarchs as god-kings. In pre-colonial Africa and Nigeria, the same applies with most of the monarchs, e.g. in Yoruba land, the Alaafin of Oyo and the Ooni of Ife used to be deified until somehow, they lost their reverence.

The spread of democratic and secular ideas in Europe and North America in the 18th and 19th centuries made it increasingly difficult for monarchs to preserve this aura. However, the subsequent development of photography, sound recording, film, and mass production, as well as public education and techniques used in commercial advertising, enabled political leaders to project a positive image like never before. It was from these circumstances in the 20th century that the best-known personality cults arose. Often these cults are a form of political religion (Wikipaedia)

Service is the best reason for being a leader. There are many examples of true service; Jesus Christ is one of them. A true leader asks people to follow his/her example. This is what has made democracy work and sustainable in Western democracies and societies – leaders serve and ask their people to follow, and the people follow.

I really do not have a problem with leaders who are performing or are seen to be performing their duties and responsibilities, if ONLY selflessly. (This is very rare anyway) Once in a while we see such leaders, but usually and mostly in the horizon.

My problem is Praise-singing and Hero-worshipping of our leaders (ironically, these people are not even anywhere near being heroes, not to talk of worthy of praise), and that's the reason we are having problems with them and they take advantage of us. I never indulge in such trivial pursuits. I am not a sycophant. Most of the time, I don't see what these leaders are doing that is unexpected or extraordinary. After all, look around you; the country is still as backward as ever, despite very strong infrastructural and civil legacies left by the colonialists, so what are they really doing?

Recently one Governor described his own people (we, Nigerians) as TIMID. It was then I saw the irony and the insult, albeit true. It is because we are timid, or they feel we are timid, that the corrupt, evil and clueless political elite take undue advantage of us, stealing, looting, raping, killing and generally mismanaging our resources, our common wealth. They bank and rely on the fact that they are lording it over a very TIMID people. That is what they have been relying on and banking on for the past 5 decades, with a toxic combination of intimidation, divide and rule, outright dishonesty, deceit and mediocrity.

When would we, as a people, realise that in a democracy, those elected into political positions as well as civil servants, are expected and must do what we elected or appointed them to do and are paid to do and that they are NOT doing us any favour whatsoever by building roads, bridges, hospitals, schools or providing employment? This is their damned job!  And after all, the money they are using to execute all these projects are not theirs but ours. Or have you ever heard of a Nigerian politician using his/her own money to build roads or even to contest elections? It is our money they waste to sponsor the weddings of their children, and in a recent instance, the wedding in Dubai of a famous singer.

When you hear or read of our devious and callous political leaders, saying they are empowering people by distributing bicycles, generators, bags of rice, umbrellas, sewing machines and 10 thousand Naira to the people of their constituencies, accompanied by loud media coverage, and projecting to the people as if they are spending their own personal wealth (the hypocrisy of it!), then you know we are indeed in trouble. It is not their money; and they can do much better than this, can’t they?; the money is the Constituency Project allowances they are supposed to use in the first place but which most of them convert to their own use.

THIS IS WHAT THEY ARE BEING PAID TO DO! We can only recognise and commend them for doing their job if they are actually doing it selflessly, but NOT praise them to high heavens as if they are the Messiah, demi-gods or Super-humans.

Please don’t get me wrong. I am only against apotheosis, praise-singing and hero-worshipping. I will recognise, commend, celebrate, reward honour and sing to high heavens any good work that is being done selflessly, sincerely, timely, considerately, compassionately, holistically and appropriately by any leader in my country.

We are getting a very raw deal from these people we now regard as demi-gods and untouchables by law. But we are more powerful than them. We can vote them out. We should vote them out. We must not allow then to sniff or get anywhere near the seats of power. We must not allow them to rig elections or manipulate votes and voting equipment. We must not allow them to intimidate us.

Nigerians and Africans should stop treating politicians as gods; treat them as a normal people on the street. As a matter of fact, our politicians should be treated with some measure of disdain and perhaps, held in contempt, because politics is not a career, it is a symbiotic way of life, in any society – they depend on the society to thrive and the society expects something in return for sucking us for their livelihood. We pay their salaries and they are supposed to look after and deliver our expectations. So don't treat them like gods.

Some of us treat our Nigerian Legis-looters, Execu-thieves, Poli-trickcians, Sin-ators, like God’s gift to the world; these are the cronies, boot-lickers, political jobbers, impostors, mediocre whose only way of survival is cuddling up to anybody in power. This ilk of people do not have any capacity or intelligence to making a living, so they infect and infest the politician, who is him/herself ready to be infected and infested. It is mutually convenient and beneficial to both parties.

On a recent lecture I delivered in Lagos on a similar topic, the reactions that arose are in bold, in response to my position:

·         Nigerians should treat their political leaders as a normal people on the street:  Impossible! Every time there's a politicians coming to certain place, there is always a big community event to welcomed or celebrate them. See the convoys and the jamboree of hangers-on that follow them.

·         We pay their salaries and they are supposed to look after and deliver our expectations: They will only look after their lackeys, their flatterers and those who aid them in their misrule and lootings.

·         They control the media, what do you expect?

·         So don't treat them like gods – It is a cultural thing, Africans hold people with age, wealth, authority and power in awe so much, they regard those who hold such as almost gods, and when regarded as such, these irresponsible parasites will do anything and everything possible to stay in power, and that includes killing.

I agree 100% with this last bit. It is a cultural malaise. This is why a lot is amiss with our combination of leadership, democracy and system of governance, and should be changed. A very good instance is the appointment of people into positions such as Ministers, Commissioners, Special Advisers and Assistants, Board Members, etc. These sets of people fail miserably in the performance of what are expected of them as public servants, not only because they are mostly pedestrian and quacks anyway, but because they do not owe their allegiance, appointments or responsibilities to the service of the people, but to their Almighty Leaders (President, Governors, etc) who appointed them.

The result is that when a Cabinet re-shuffle is imminent; these lackeys start panicking and start running around like headless chicken, scared and lobbying to stay in their jobs. When they do not perform, they will not resign. That is the affairs of state in Nigeria; no moral will to admit mistakes, non-performance and inefficiency, hence the massive level of corruption that has brought the country almost on its knees while saner and more sincere minds look on helplessly whilst middling and men and women of low intelligence take over running – ruining- the lives of 150 million people.

We should learn from the Japanese:

The Best Leader

The best leaders, the people do not notice.

The next best, the people honour and praise.

The next, the people fear;

And the next, the people hate.

If you have no faith,

People will have no faith in you,

And you must resort to oaths (lies).

When the best leader’s work is done

The people say: “We did it ourselves!

It's actually from the Chinese poet Lao Tzu, but this is what Japanese people think of Politicians.

I can't stand sycophancy and obsequiousness. I can’t stand timidity and reticence either.

Legislative Immunity for Nigerian Lawmakers: A Very Bad Idea.

Many Nigerians were expectedly shocked, concerned and apprehensive at the news on 07 March 2013 that the (notorious, inept and ineffective) Nigerian House of Representatives is planning to include immunity for federal legislators in the on-going amendment of the 1999 constitution, with the bills passing a second reading, and inevitably will be overwhelmingly passed as an Act.

It was reported thus:  “a bill for an act to alter the constitution of the Federal Republic of Nigeria, 1999 by providing immunity for members of the legislature in  respect of the words spoken or written at the plenary session or at committee proceedings, to guarantee that freedom of speech, debates and proceedings in Legislative Houses are not impeached or questioned in any court or place out of parliament and for related matters” and a “bill for an Act to alter the provisions of the constitution to guarantee freedom of speech and legislative actions of members of the National Assembly,”

On the face of it, I have nothing against Legislative Immunity, which is a legal doctrine that prevents legislators from being sued for actions performed and decisions made in the course of serving in government. This doctrine does not protect legislators from criminal prosecution, nor does it relieve them from responsibility for actions outside the scope of their office.

Parliamentary immunity, also known as legislative immunity, is a system in which members of the parliament or legislature are granted partial immunity from prosecution. Before prosecuting, it is necessary that the immunity be removed, usually by a superior court of justice or by the parliament itself. This reduces the possibility of pressing a member of the parliament to change his vote by fear of prosecution.

Legislative speech and debate immunity grew out of centuries of struggle between the English parliament and throne.  During the 16th and 17th centuries, some English monarchs sought to intimidate legislators--especially those not sympathetic to the Crown's viewpoints--through legal action. The adoption of the English Bill of Rights in 1689 sharply limited this practice by granting immunity to members against civil or criminal action stemming from the performance of their legislative duties.  It provided that “the Freedom of Speech, and Debates or Proceedings in Parliament, ought not to be impeached or questioned in any Court or Place out of Parliament.”
In America, the constitutions of 43 states provide legislators with a fundamental protection of free speech and debate.  This immunity protects legislators from punitive executive or judicial action.  The intent is to allow lawmakers to work independently and unimpeded by the threat of intervention from the other branches of government in the discharge of their legislative duties.  

Legislative immunity was in the news in Arizona some years ago when a newspaper reported that Gov. Jan Brewer was briefly detained — and handcuffed — by state police after a freeway accident in 1988 when she was a legislator. Officers thought Brewer was under the influence of alcohol, but they decided that legislative immunity prohibited an arrest. Brewer denied being under the influence the night of the accident. She didn't invoke the privilege but an officer determined she was a senator by noticing an identification placard on the floor of her car, a police report said.

An Arkansas sheriff's deputy last year mistakenly thought legislative immunity meant he couldn't arrest a speeding legislator who led officers on a high-speed chase through two counties. The lawmaker was let go with a scolding but later charged and convicted of fleeing, careless driving and improper passing. He appealed it.

The problem with such immunity in Nigeria is based on the fact that we are a country, or a people notorious for flagrant violation norms, ethics and of the Rights of Man. Every strata of the society violates the law; we disregard the Constitution, laws, rules and regulations, standards of behaviours, the environment. The Governments disobey or completely ignore court orders, the Judiciary is corrupt, decadent and untrustworthy; law enforcement and security agencies are the very epitome of corruption, misinterpretation of the law and fragrant abuse of authority and powers; politicians do not know, nor bother to know what the Constitution of the country is about; our bloated and inept Civil Service are the bedrock of corruption despite their holier-than-thou hypocrisy; the Military are undisciplined and flout the law every time. The Press are about as clean as a child trying to eat melted chocolate with his hands. The business community and so-called business moguls and captains of industry consider themselves above the law because they are wealthy. The Academics are not exempt from this complicity. The society, the ordinary people are even worse. We do not respect any law. In fact, Nigerians believe that when a law is made, it is meant to be broken. Hence the reason why leaders produced in such a society are no different, and are even worse than the society that begat them. A Catch-22 situation for us, really! The society has to change before its leaders can change, except somehow we manage to find a leader who is not a direct beneficiary of the evil that our society is spewing out on a daily basis.

Any wonder why our society is in this quagmire of corruption, abuse of power and authority, poverty and permanent state of regression and underdevelopment.

Look around you, on a daily basis. There are abuses of power, authority, perquisites, and the environment. There are abuses of children and women, government and personal properties, abuses of trust, abuses of religion and ethnicity, of culture and tradition and technology, of energy generation and usage, even of  wealth, of education, even of food (e.g. wastage), all you can think of.

Give a Nigerian an inch, and they will take a foot; give them a foot and they will take a yard….that is us. Your mechanic will always try to take advantage you, as would your carpenter, tailor, painter, bus-driver, taxi driver, vulcaniser, bricklayer and plumber, butcher, petrol attendant, not to talk of the market-woman. Even your lecturer in the university.

No! We cannot be trusted to uphold any law in this artificially distorted, confounding and exciting country. I don’t even know why people are panicking about the Petroleum Industry Bill, so called PIB, when we all know it will be only as good and effective as the paper it is written on. What happened to the Freedom of Information Act? Is anybody, for example, the Press and Media, benefiting from it?

That is why if a Parliamentary Immunity, much as it is a decent and integral part of a civilised and democratic society, is granted Nigerian legislature, the level of abuse, as unregulated as it will be by the same people – legislators – who passed the bill and act into law, will be colossal.

Judging by the behaviour of our legislators, ever since Independence, I have no doubt that such immunity conferred on them will be further used to intimidate the citizenry and their political opponents. Most importantly, it is virtually a licence to loot the treasury, if indeed, we have one.

Scenario: Lawan Farouk, the federal legislator accused of receiving a bribe from business man, Femi Otedola, could easily say that the bribe was received while he was in parliament and therefore during the course of his legislative duties and whilst serving the country. He might therefore invoke parliamentary or legislative immunity easily. And that will be the end of it. What with a corrupt judiciary and an avid crew of lawyers.

The attempt to pass such a bill has enraged Nigerians again, and we no wonder our so-called law-makers have now been labelled SIN-ATORS and LEGIS-LOOTERS.  Our leaders are crooked and criminally smart and I see this as an attempt to exclude any form of prosecution against them whilst in office.  Soon, such dubious immunity will be extended to the State Houses of Assemblies, and before you know it, Local Government Chairmen and Councillors. And then Civil servants will have Immunity too! I wonder what type of Immunity we will call that, but trust Nigerians to come up with something. Never a dearth of ideas; but a dearth of implementation.

Nigeria is not your average normal, civilised or democratic country, in all their different ramifications. We are still basically a primordial people still trying to evolve. Apologies to Pan-Africanists, but events and history of the last 50 years in most African countries have not been encouraging. Blame the colonialists and Europeans, Americans all you can; Africans are the architect of their own future.
Our “honourable and hard-working” legislator are very quick to pass bills which will be selfishly beneficial to them, but when it comes to bills that will be of use and beneficial to the development of the country or the upliftment of the people at large, they dilly dally. A bill to establish a National Food Safety Policy and Commission has been with them since 2009, and has only been read twice, while a bill on corruption has been stagnant and considered as not deserving attention.

All in all, I am opposed to this bill only because I do not trust our legislators, our politicians and governments not to turn it upside down. As it is, even without this Immunity Act covering them, we see they are already untouchable, and this is illegal and unconstitutional; so one can imagine if they are backed by law and the Constitution. It is practically a Licence to be corrupt; licence to steal, to kill, to lie, to be disrespectful to the electorate, to disregard the law.

They will ride roughshod over the people. And being naturally arrogant, they will now have the licence and constitutional backing to deal with the electorate and the judiciary with disdain. They will also be prone to manipulating and interpreting this particular Act as they please or deem fit. And they will not be short of our legal luminaries, our lawyers and SANs who will see easy money to be made by obfuscating and grandstanding us, the poor condemned.

They are indeed the players and we are the spectators.

It is not going to be a pretty sight. And this is why possibly, most Nigerians are aghast at this suggestion that our legislators should be “immunised” (so to speak) because of their notoriety for crass and obtuse irresponsibility, corruption, selfishness, self-service, bare-faced lying and duplicitousness, obstinacy and tyrannical tendencies, ignorance and charlatanism.

Unfortunately, do we hear any protest from our labour leaders and human right activists? No, they are mute in the meantime, watching how the game goes and when the Act is passed into law,  they will raise a little bit of dust and noise, and will start accusing the courts and waste a bit more of the workers’ money.

I must confess I have not seen or read the suggested Bill,  but I will assume that it is intended to  protect legislators from punitive executive or judicial action, with the intent to allow them to work independently and unimpeded by the threat of intervention from the other branches of government in the discharge of their legislative duties.   This is a noble attribute of democracy, if practiced right.

Questions remain, however.  While legislators will be protected from certain liabilities, will they also be protected from having to testify about their legislative actions?  Will they also be protected from criminal prosecution if they commit crimes such as stealing, corrupt practices, murder, perjury, bribery, and even traffic offences? Will legislative documents be protected from judicial inquiry?  These are just some of the questions that may not be fully resolved by the Act.

In most civilised and democratic countries, appending the title of “Honourable”, means to have behaved honourably and be behaving honourably at all times. But in Nigeria, people who steal or connive to steal ballot boxes; people who can behead human beings without feeling any guilt, are those that are honoured and respected as “Honourable”. The title has been much abused, and hence you can see where I am coming from; sure as hell, any Immunity for our irresponsible lawmakers will surely be abused.

The Truth must be said always.


This article is dedicated to the memory of my dear brother-in-law, Mr Dele Odegbami, (senior brother to Segun and Wole Odegbami, and to my wife, Toyin and her 2 sisters) whose untimely death took place in the floods of Lagos on the night of Monday, 4th March, 2013 at the age of 66. He is survived by wife and children and grandchildren. ONE LIFE! Rest in Peace.

The Judiciary’s Complicity in the Rape And Looting of Nigeria

"Money and Corruption Are ruining the land, Crooked politicians Betray the working man, Pocketing the profits And treating us like sheep, And we're tired of hearing promises, That we know they'll never keep."  –Ray Davies.

Once upon a time in America, a man named Willie Sutton was asked why he robbed banks.

He replied: "Cos that’s where the money is".

It was an uncomplicated philosophy which served him well until he was caught and marched off to prison.

Today, Mr Sutton would not have risked incarceration. Now, were Mr Sutton to be a Nigerian, he would have had the choice of being a politician, a civil servant or a contractor. And of course, he has the added and important advantage of being protected from the law by the very people who are supposed to uphold the law and dish out punishment for infraction – the Judiciary and related vagabonds. (Sorry, I am being generalist here)

Better still, he could have been a Nigerian policeman, although he would have been severely limited as to making loads of money, but at least he could be in official authorised uniform and waylay people on the highway and collect money from them without facing any charges of armed robbery.

In Nigeria, large amount of the money (our supposed common wealth), or “the loot”, as we have now come to know it, is kept with the Government - Federal, State or Local. "That is where the loot (money) is", paraphrasing Mr Sutton, and that is why everybody wants to be in Government, either as a politician, civil servant or political appointee.

So that brings me to the case of disappearing billions, where a minor civil servant – yes, a minor civil servant John Yakubu Yusuf, former (I should think he’s now “former”) Director of the Police Pension Board; or who has ever heard of this pen robber, in cahoots with a few others, managed to steal a whopping and dizzying sum of N32 billion Naira? (Some reports say 23.3 billion; we are not even sure of how much he admitted stealing)  Where on earth have you ever heard a country, a sane country, had one of its officials steal so much money from the public purse?

How was he and his accomplices ever allowed to steal so much? Why did they have to steal so much? The money or loot must really be flowing freely on the streets, nay, in those little government offices in Abuja.

Now comes the topping? Steal so much money, sentenced to 2 years with the option of only N750, 000.00 fine, which he promptly paid. The guy was laughing all the way to the bank (that is, he and his accomplices and those behind the fraud)

A solicitor friend of mine later pointed to me that the Penal Code that operates in the 19 Northern states, the Federal Capital Territory, Abuja being in that area of jurisdiction, means the presiding judge could not have passed a stricter sentence according to Section 309: Punishment for criminal misappropriation: Whoever commits criminal misappropriation shall be punished with imprisonment for a term which may extend to two years or with fine or with both. What do we have here? In the Southern states, the Criminal Code operates, so if Mr Bloody Thief Yusuf had been tried in say, Enugu or Ibadan, his sentence would have been a stiffer one, assuming we have an upright judge, a conscientious and diligent prosecution, i.e. the EFCC, and no political interference.

I am in the wrong racket. And so are many of my compatriots. I have often wondered whether or not my fortunes in life would have improved if I had joined the Federal Civil Service in 1979, when the Federal Civil Service Commission used to visit the universities to recruit graduating students. I probably would not now be struggling, 34 years later, to build my own house and having only a few thousand nairas in my bank account. It’s a dog’s life.

Just kidding! I have no regrets for not being a thief, a corrupt politician, a thieving civil servant or a crooked bank executive/fuel subsidy contractor. I am happy with my conscience, my integrity and reputation. And I know so are many of my people.

"Power does not corrupt men. Fools, however, if they get into a position of power, corrupt power." – George Bernard Shaw.

In my friend, Chinedu Akuta’s blog “Nigerian Judiciary is Big Joke”, there is a catalogue of travesty and complicity of Nigeria’s judiciary in dealing with high profile corruption cases in Nigeria – “the current case of  John Yakubu Yusuf; Olabode George committed a fraud of over N85 billion naira and was only given 2:5 years imprisonment.  Mrs. Cecilia Ibru (former MD/CEO of Ocenic Bank) was jailed 6 months for stealing N54 billion naira. Former Inspector General of Police, Tafa Balogun was convicted of N20 billion naira fraud, and was sentenced to only 6 months in prison. Both Tafa Balogun and Cecilia Ibru had their  sentences spent in their homes or chosen hospitals. Another Ex Inspector General of Police, Sunday Ehindero was caught trying to smuggle out N200 million naira out of Abuja. Sunday Ehindero was not even sent to court, so the case died like that. So many Ex Governors, between (1999-2011), have been granted bails on their alleged corrupt cases, some, like Peter Odili, (Dr. Perpetual Injunction), former Governor of Rivers State, even have court injunction stopping their trial on corruption cases. James Ibori (Former Governor of Delta State) was discharged and acquitted in a Nigerian court, but was sent to jail in UK, for the same offences he was acquitted from in Nigeria. The list is endless”.

Corruption is all over the world, the difference is how various countries approach, manage and deal with it. In China, the penalty is capital punishment. In the US, Bernard Madoff, who committed a fraud of $65 Billion Dollars (£38bn Pounds Sterling) was sentenced to 150 years in jail. Nigerian judiciary is no longer the last hope of a common man, but rather, the destroyer of the Nigerian hope.  “The greatest incitement to crime is the hope of escaping punishment” said Marcus Cicero”.

It is sad and unfortunate that the Nigerian Judiciary, which a few decades ago, was one of the most respected, erudite and upright in the world is aiding and abetting crimes, by handing little or no sentences/jail terms. “Make no mistake, the destruction of Nigeria (by whatever means) will affect all and sundry. Take a look at the insecurity situation (which is a failure of the government and partly the people); no one is safe/saved any more. Emirs, chiefs, ministers, commissioners, judges, lawyers, ex this, ex that, etc can be attacked or kidnapped. High crime rates are partly the fault of our judiciary also. Therefore, this should serve a wakeup call, because a lot of damages have already been done” (CV Akuta)

By now, after fourteen years of so-called democracy, there should be no doubt in the minds of Nigerians that this institution, the Judiciary, the main pillar of democracy and freedom, and surely one of the most important and fundamental to democracy’s success and good governance, is one of the most corrupt, with glaring instances where court judgments have been bought for money, or influenced by people in high places who would rather not have justice prevail.

From the standpoint of the vulnerability to corruption and of its social impact, the judiciary remains one of the most sensitive and visible areas in this respect. There is no doubt that in our present predicament as a nation, there is a need to develop and implement a set of adequate corruption-combating policies in the justice system, has become increasingly imperative and starts from justice-seekers, to whom a fair judicial system is a fundamental right, and to judges and other categories in the system that are more and more exposed to public criticism, and I might say, exposure.

Justice is the backbone of any democratic society. The rule of law and the acceptance of its values and principles entail the confidence in justice. For citizens’ confidence in the system to exist, judicial professionals must be able to offer credibility. They must have irreprehensible behaviour and prototypical professional conduct. From the above, we can see that the Nigerian judiciary has failed us. Of course, over our 53 years of independent existence, there have always been bright rays of hope and I can compile a list as long as my two arms of exemplary, upright, erudite, conscientious, illustrious, honest, acclaimed dignified Nigerian judges, jurists and men/women of the wig who have never, and will never compromise their names and reputation for any amount on lucre or pressure from those in power, to satisfy selfish ends that are inimical to the development and progress or public interest of this country.

In a sane country or society, there should be no corruption in the justice system as long as the system is a part of the legal and institutional mechanism that is supposed to combat it. On the other hand, the lack of court convictions of corrupt politicians, dishonest and thieving civil servants, greedy and light-fingered bank executives, conniving and corrupt police and other corrupt government officials in recent years is a clear indication that we do not yet have any or enough methods of preventing and fighting corruption in the system.

But then, the judicial system is an integral part and spawn of the larger society, and I will always reiterate that a bad society will consistently bring out, or spew out bad leaders, bad institutions, bad systems, bad governance; and hence the judiciary is not exempt from this fact.

Having said this though, in any society, good or bad, the justice system remains the last bastion of freedom and hope for the common man. Where this is absent or abdicated, the common man is doomed - doomed to oppression, corruption, poverty, bad governance and generally a decrepit standard of living, such as we have in Nigeria now.

The prevention and combating of corruption in the judicial system is a priority objective in system reform, in the broader setting of the fight against the phenomenon of corruption. Judicial corruption may harm the most important social values, considering the fact that the legal system is designed exactly to ensure the supremacy of the law which entails, among other things, the prosecution and bringing to justice of corruption offences. 

Legitimacy is vital to the running of justice. This particular characteristic comes from the public’s understanding of the way in which the justice system is organised, from the trust people have in the competence of judges and other system workers, as well as from the knowledge of the rules upon which the system works and from the acceptance of the authority of court judgements. Apart from the legal safeguards of professionalism, workers in the justice system are also required to have a specific moral aptitude and a certain conduct. 

The bottom line is Nigeria’s judiciary is no longer the last optimism of the common man, but a platform of injustice, inequality, discrimination, nastiness and place for the highest bidder, and sadly, our hitherto respected judiciary has ceased to be the last hope of the common man; rather it has become the first protection of villains, charlatans and vagabonds in power and authority, who, with a certain disdain, flout the law, knowing they can always get the protection from a corrupt judicial system.

Something must be done to reverse this.