The pardon granted by Nigeria Council of State to former governors of Plateau and Taraba States, Joshua Dariye and Jolly Nyame, as well as other politicians convicted by the courts for corruption has been condemned by Civil society Organisations (CSOs) in the country.
Senator Dariye and Nyame were both imprisoned for looting N1.16 billion and N1.6 billion from coffers of their respective states, but were pardoned by the council of state chaired by President Muhammadu Buhari.
The Civil Society Legislative Advocacy Centre (CISLAC), Transparency International (TI) Nigeria said they find some of the names recommended by the Presidential Advisory Committee on the Prerogative of Mercy which is headed by minister of Justice and attorney-general of the federation (AGF), Abubakar Malami, questionable.
Other CSOs who condemned the pardon of politicians serving jail terms are Yiaga Africa; International Press Centre (IPC); Centre for Citizens with Disability (CCD); The Albino Foundation; CLEEN Foundation; Institute for Media and Society (IMS) and Nigerian Women Trust Fund (NWTF).
Others include Premium Times Centre for Investigative Journalism (PTCIJ); Partners for Electoral Reform (PER); Civil Society Legislative Advocacy Centre (CISLAC); Women Advocates Research and Documentation Centre (WARDC) and Nigerian Network of Non-Governmental Organizations (NNNGO).
The CSOs said they are worried about the effect such ill-thought political pardon would have on the anti-corruption efforts, which constitutes the major agenda and commitment of the current administration.
A statement signed by their leader, Awwal Musa Rafsanjani, noted that the mere fact that citizens cannot get the full list of the over 150 persons pardoned shows a lack of transparency in the process.
Also, the spokesman for the CSOs and the executive director for Yiaga Africa, Samson Itodo, said the action will affect the fight against corruption in the country.
The CSOs further said when convicted individuals who looted billions of naira are released there is no way the international community would take Nigeria’s anti-corruption efforts seriously, especially when attempts are being made to recover stolen assets outside the country.
“This trend of shielding Politically Exposed Persons from accounting for their actions is disturbing. Recall that in 2019, the Ministry of Justice filed a nolle prosequi to strike out high profile cases. An example of this was that of Senator Danjuma Goje alongside a former Executive Chairman of Gombe State Universal Basic Education Board, Mr. Aliyu El-Nafaty in 2019.
“Coupled with corruption allegation in the judicial system, this pardon shows how bad Nigeria’s anti-corruption efforts is and it comes barely a week after the United States government released it’s ‘2021 Country Reports on Human Rights Practices in Nigeria’ where it accused Independent Corrupt Practices and other related Offences Commission (ICPC) and the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC) of focusing on low-and mid-level government officials.
“The pardon further confirms the poor rating of Nigeria on different global indexes and reports like the Corruption Perception Index and the Afro barometer corruption survey which have reported an increase in corruption in Nigeria.
“Without doubt, the official pardon basically targeted at political settlement is indeed a major setback to our nation’s progress and achievements in the fight against corruption, while validating public perception of the administration’s reported disproportionate and lop-sided fight against corruption in the country.
“This move goes further to demoralize our anti-corruption agencies who are already facing challenges prosecuting high profile cases of corruption. Some of these cases took over ten years to conclude and with lots of resources committed,” the statement said.
“We sincerely hope the processes and objectives of such Presidential pardon will be re-examined and made transparent to avoid bad precedence, especially as the nation moves towards political transition in the 2023 general elections,” they added.
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