IN MY COURT?
In a corruption case that was yet to assume a celebrity status of some sort, the court was filled to the brim and it was some sort of surprise to the media especially those of them present in court. Legal salvos started on a high and you couldn’t help but marvel at the brilliance of the lawyers representing both parties.
Our dear public official had been accused of graft which had a terrible effect on the ministry where he administered and he had gone along with the tradition of hiring many senior advocates and was confident that the worst he would get was a plea bargain and life would continue as usual. There in the courtroom audience sat people of all shades and most noticeable were his kinsmen who had even gone ahead to give him a chieftaincy title years before not minding his source of stupendous wealth and contributions to his community. Of course his contributions couldn’t have been more than a few bags of rice at festive seasons, a few grinding machines, sewing machines, okadas, commercial tricycles and not forgetting purchase of jamb and waec forms ( though not that he even wished they got the kind of education they deserved) and of course a heavy “settlement “ to the traditional ruler.
A group of youths who were in the court had displayed outside the court all sorts of banners before the court session commenced in protest that their kinsman was being persecuted because of where he is from (the usual narrative in this clime). They probably got carried away and forgot they were in a court room or were probably thinking aloud when they raised their voices in unison to utter “ leave this man alone, is he the only one that has stolen public funds, have other people been caught too”? What……..? “In my court”? The judged exclaimed, apparently surprised at such effrontery and which made the audience more surprised too. The judge who was new and had been recommended by a foreign UN agency had just relocated to the country a few months back. She questioned the rationale behind that line of thought and wondered how that could rid the society of corruption. (Chaeeee, this judge is really new sha.)
And so the corruption case was adjourned but before then, the judge ordered the arrest of all the youths who did that for contempt of court proceedings, the tide had turned as the judge promised to make scapegoats of them to serve as a deterrent to others. The case was fixed for the following day and when their charge was read to them to take their plea, one after the other, they regaled the court of how our dear “High Chief” their revered son had been of immense help to the community apparently as a diversion to the contempt charge against them, how he had employed a lot of their semi-literate sons and daughters into the civil service and also how they were on the verge of begging him to “offer” himself to represent them in the national assembly and all other stories of his philanthropic activities in their community. The contempt proceeding lasted another day and the judge in trying to make scapegoats of the twenty of them slammed them with a sentence of three months imprisonment or an option of fine of two hundred thousand naira each.
They were so confident that their dear “ high chief” would be more than ready to sort the fines but alas, our dear “high chief “ openly declined that sort of magnanimity so as not to be seen as to have actually stolen public funds. The tide had indeed turned and the youths had jail terms staring them in the face. But trust Nigerians, anyone who is corrupt is always very smart, our dear “high chief” has his ways and he quickly turned one of his kinsmen into a rich man overnight who paid the youths’ fine to avoid being imprisoned in order not to lose his support base which sensibly is very crucial.
Can we ever rid our society of corruption with all the ethnic and religious colouration we resort to when anyone is caught here in Nigeria?
