ICHEOKU says in what appears to be a season of holding former leaders and presidents accountable for crimes committed during their time in office, the people of South Korea has sent their former President Park Geun-hye to 24 years in prison for bribery and other charges. The former president was also ordered to pay $17 million in fines.
Recall that the now disgraced former president was impeached and ousted from office by South Korean lawmakers in December 2016, following months of massive street protests by the people of South Korea demanding her removal from office for corruption. Thereafter a criminal investigation followed, culminating in a trial which began on May 2017 which was found her guilty on all 16 corruption-related counts, including bribery, coercion and abuse of power, as charged. The former president has now been convicted and sentenced to 24 years in prison, in addition to a $17 million fine.
It is also on record that Brazil similarly convicted and sent their former President Lula Da Silva to 12 years in prison for official corruption. South Africa also formally indicted their former President Jacob Zuma for corruption as well. ICHEOKU says but when will Nigeria learn to emulate these countries by similarly taking on their also equally corrupt former leaders and presidents, including former President Jonathan Goodluck, Olusegun Obasanjo, Abdulsalam Abubakar and the infamous Ibrahim Badamosi Babangida for their publicly visible evidence of wanton corruption while in office as well as specifically identifiable abuses of office then, which in some form is still continuing till this day.
It is also worthy of note that none of these countries moved against their former leaders until persuaded by the people of those countries, who moved en-mass and demanded for such criminal examination of their past leaders, using public protests as a weapon of choice. Some of the peoples' mass action forced their leaders out of office, including in South Korea where the parliament had to act to impeach and remove the now imprisoned former President Park from office following an unending street protests. Former Jacob Zuma of South Africa was also similarly forced out of office following unending South African peoples push and demand that he resign his office, which he resisted as long as he could until the ANC waded in and forced him out. Today, he has been indicted for official criminal corruption while in office.
But in Nigeria and as with Nigerians, they lack both the moral authority and necessary courage needed to mount such a forceful recall effort and/or demand the prosecution of their decrepitude former leaders, whether while in or out of office. That these former leaders, despite overwhelming evidence of their colossal corruption, are walking freely in the country and using their corruptly amassed fortune to destabilize the polity, is indeed mind numbing. But a very strange people who obviously seem impervious to doing right and who corruption seems an acceptable way of life, can only wish to imbibe the spirit of those South Koreans, Brazilians and of late South Africans.
So until then, all the noise about fighting corruption in Nigeria will remain what it is - a mere hogwash; a wishful whitewash used to witch-hunt any oppositions and people that fall out of favor of the man in Aso Rock. Unfortunately, a Nigerian people who see no deterrent coming from the punishment of previous corrupt leaders, will always continue to engage in corruption, fully aware that enough money, regardless of how it was acquired, purchases power and influence; and with it comes absolute immunity from justice. Pitifully SAD.
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