President, Institute of Chartered Accountants of Nigeria (ICAN), Davidson Alaribe in a chat with Punch, bore his mind with Punch’s Johnson Idowu on the state of Nigerian judicial system among many issues affecting Nigeria at the moment.
Alaribe said: “Our judicial system regarding punishment for fraud and corruption is very loose. What I need to do is to steal several billions of naira and use a tiny fraction of the money to defend myself. If we change that system and set up a special court for fraud, nobody will be involved in fraud again.
“In China, if you are caught in corruption, you will be killed, and we are advocating that. Even if we can consider the death sentence for corrupt persons and we agree that they should be jailed for life, let it be through another court and not the regular courts where they use technicalities to strike out issues.
“Corruption cases in Nigeria only reign for the trial week and as soon as the person is granted bail, he goes back to the community to get chieftaincy title and becomes celebrated and that is the end. We have seen many cases of past governors and public office holders who are being charged, and the cases are still on for the past five, six, or seven years.
“There should be a kind of special court to try fraud cases and the punishment, if it is not death by firing squad, should be life in jail. Those cases should not last more than three years.
“If we continue with the practice of everyone going to the same court, and that same week we waited and the charged person is granted bail, it is over. Nothing happens again. It is our system. It is not that people do not steal in other climes but what they steal is very small because they know that if they are caught up with the law, they will be punished. But a Nigerian will steal the larger sum and use it to fight the society. If we can change the narrative to allow for a special court to try corrupt persons, things will change.
“Above all, prevention is better than cure. Nigerians and all stakeholders should take up the responsibility of educating people that a good name is better than silver and gold.”