Forgiving Thieves

NO agreement seems to exist on the appropriate treatment for those who looted the public till. The laws on fraud and economic sabotage appear inadequate in some quarters, hence the multiplicity of suggestions on what to do with the thieves.

The most recent of these contributions came from the Niger State Governor Dr. Mu’azu Babangida Aliyu. “We should give them a moratorium to repatriate the stolen money. If they do, we should forgive them,” Dr. Aliyu, a former federal permanent secretary said.

“We all know how they carried the money out of the country,” he said in apparent reference to some former governors who are on trial for alleged looting of state funds during their tenure.
The crux of Dr. Aliyu’s position is that if the looted funds had been invested in the economy, Nigeria would have been a more advanced country. We totally agree that public officers should have done more with the funds entrusted to them, in the same way that we think that the full weight of the law should be applied in determining their roles in the economic sabotages that went on in their States.
There are enough laws to tackle corruption in Nigeria. What is missing is the proper application of these laws.

In addition, there are poor investigation skills and low resources available to the security agencies to track the changing technologies involved in the movement of stolen funds.
In the case of the States, their Houses of Assembly have done a deplorable job of their oversight functions in the implementation of budgets, and the appropriation of the monthly allocation from the federal purse. Every case of a governor who stole is an indictment of the State House of Assembly that has powers to superintend the affairs of the State, but failed to use them.

Dr. Aliyu missed the mark by lowering the standards for transparency in the conduct of state affairs with his suggested arbitrariness. It would create room for more corruption since all the thief needs to do is repatriate his loot as investment. The quest for investments should not take precedence over our laws. Once lawlessness sets in, neither investments, nor the country would make much progress.
How would what the thief repatriates be checked to ensure that it matches what was stolen? What then happens to laws on fraud, corruption, conspiracy, forgery, which prescribe punishments, even at the level of intention?

The fight against corruption is more serious than Dr. Aliyu realises. Where money laundering is involved, international laws are broken, and several countries may be willing to put the same suspect on trial for infracting their laws.

Nigeria’s membership of international organisations imposes obligations on her to follow best global practices in the fight against money laundering and other trans-border crimes that thrive under weak legislations and punishments like the one Dr. Aliyu has proposed.
Thieves, like other criminals, should be punished for their actions before talks of forgiveness, which hopefully would not include national honours.