My only problem with Prof. Odinkalu’s articles is that they are too short. I just wanted to continue reading.
What he has described is really sad. It’s not just lawyers and judges that “enjoy no-consequence.”
No-consequence is a culture in Nigeria. If you do anything wrong, you beg. No, you don’t pay the fine or do the time. You beg. If the person you are begging refuses, look for someone he “listens to” to beg on your behalf.
Read Also: Senior Advocates of No-Consequence (SANs)
If you are not pardoned, the blame immediately shifts to the person who has refused to pardon you. They are wicked.
The sad part is that most times, even when you don’t beg, the matter just frizzles out and no one remembers to enforce the judgment or the recommended punishment.
Case in point: The countless commissions of inquiry set up by the government to find “the remote and immediate causes of a crisis.” Names are named, but nothing is done. Nothing. In fact, the persons who are named as the chief culprits became big people just a few years later.
I remember the commissioner of police in Jos during one of the crises, MD Abubakar, who was indicted by the Niki Tobi commission of inquiries. Despite the damning condemnation of this individual and the recommendations, nothing happened. He was recommended for dismissal, should he refuse to retire voluntarily. He refused to retire, and he was not dismissed. About a decade after, he became the IG of Police.
Civil servants who have been caught stealing were pardoned, or at least they suffered no losses as a result of their crime. They eventually become permanent secretaries, then they either retire into their ill-gotten wealth, or they retire into active politics. And they continue stealing.
Even those who have done time or are doing time are magically pardoned. Dariye, Jolly Nyame, now Maryam Sanda, who stabbed her husband in the neck, gut, back and thigh in a blind fit of jealous rage, has been pardoned.
It’s a culture of no consequence, but we have christened it as a culture of forgiveness and mercy. That way, it is seen as a virtue, not a vice, since it aligns with our religious proclivities.
If this culture of no consequence is not discarded, we will never make progress as a country. Never.
So, while Prof is spot on in his analysis, it’s not a problem that is exclusive to the legal profession. It is a national malaise, killing us one day at a time.
~Daniel Bott
The views expressed by contributors are strictly personal and not of Law & Society Magazine.
