President Muhammadu Buhari as we know him to be is a man of his words and
certainly he will examine all incriminating evidences that could lead to
the arrest and prosecution of former or current government officials
involved in the stealing Nigeria’s crude oil.
Nigerian Executives involved in illegal sale and diversion of crude oil
monies generally have their money hidden in local and foreign banks, as
such professional and uncorrupted policing will be needed to successfully
find out those involved in illegal sale of crude oil. The international
police will certainly do their job without fear of compromise.
Mr. President, the real challenge is the judiciary where corruption
remains endemic and dishonesty has longed replaced integrity.
As we all know the Nigeria’s judiciary continues to profess cleanup of
corruption in the court system but to this day unethical practices on the
bench remain chronic as evidenced from complaints by some recently retired
Chief Justices.
Again and again, public institutions like the judiciary and their
occupiers remain riddled with greed and silent corruption, and some of
these magistrates, judges and justices continue to disregard the rule of
law with impunity.
In general, judges are very powerful persons and each has a choice if he
or she wants to be fair, competent and impartial or not.
Mr. Buhari, for many years now, we have had policies, reforms and training
to help reduce judicial corruption and other malpractices yet the
dysfunctional, harmful, derelict, and even dangerous acts continue to flow
out from our different courtrooms.
As long as our courts are filled with dishonorable persons and “all kinds
of people” , in the words of former Chief Justice Dahiru Musdapher,
judgments will continue to be accompamend with marks of indecency and
injustice.
President Buhari, if the prosecution of suspected former or current
government officials is to yield any gain for the nation let’s do
everything to fish out judicial officers with obvious antisocial
tendencies as they are threats to public fairness.
Let’s use technology, psychological evaluation process and public disgrace
to monitor and screen out those with crooked tendencies, or those whose
grasp of reality is markedly materialistic and who suffer from
professional shamelessness.
Dr. John Egbeazien Oshodi is a Forensic/Clinical Psychologist, a
Consultant in National Psychology, and a former Secretary-General of the
Nigeria Psychological Association. Jos5930458@aol.com