Fighting Corruption in the Judiciary has taught me one thing; *IT IS PERSONAL!*
I have also come to understand that, what one considers as a corrupt act is not considered as another as a corrupt act. The law may say it is corrupt but most Nigerians do not follow laws, especially laws that deal with cultural and social behaviour that are unique to particular tribes, race or religion. For instance the provisions of law relating to marriage and related issues whether in civil or criminal is different for the northern and southern parts of Nigeria.
So the North has the Penal code prescribing certain crimes that are not in the Criminal Code which is applicable in the South and vice versa. So we have the crime of bigamy for instance in the criminal code in the south which is not a crime in the Northern part of Nigeria.
What is my point, well I discovered that like many laws we adopted from our colonial masters and those we adopted just because the west imposed it on us as a condition to get economic aid, our Nigerian cultures struggle to obey those laws or even appreciate them.
Like the body rejects a particular drug, most Nigerians reject the laws regarding corruption.
We have traditions that oppose directly our anti graft legislation and instead of us to look critically at the symptoms and address the ills of corruption we engage in personality clashes that only lead us to more poverty and ignorance.
We all know how a fight begins but we don’t know how it ends. I reason that both parties in this debacle owe Nigerians not to make this dispute about them but work together and join others to minimize the incidences of corruption and reduce poverty in Nigeria.
Both parties are only proving the point that this fight is about them and not those they claim they fight for.
Aare Afe Babalola (AAF) SAN claims he is a philanthropist, educationist, legal icon that has improved so many things while Dele Farotimi (DF) claims he is a crusader for justice, philanthropist and Rights Activist. These two are certainly not the only ones who claim to fight for others but in the last two weeks they have both divided their one constituency (the legal profession) while corruption continues to smile to the bank.
I am not urging either party to do anything but in my humble view they are both slowly becoming irrelevant to the fight against corruption in the Judiciary (not to talk about other sectors.. which are in need of serious cleansing)
My appeal to the legal community is to STOP these corrupt acts or at least reduce it. Fighting corruption requires everyone’s attention not the attention of a few.
Remember, corruption cannot win if you don’t allow yourself to be corrupted or corrupt others.
_Bayo Akinlade is the Convener of Fight Against Corruption in the Judiciary (FIACIJ) and has for over 10yrs advocated for the reduction of corruption within the Judiciary amongst Judges, lawyers and Court Staff_
