Can Death Penalty Reduce Corruption? (I)

My views on corruption in Nigeria is not hidden. I totally abhor it and would do a lot of things to fight corruption. The fact realistically remains that in any society, we cannot have zero corruption, but we can have zero-tolerance to corruption. The best we can do is to manage corruption and/or reduce it to a manageable level. Even the Western democracies will admit that this is what they have been doing and which has made their societies better for their people.

When I first read Senator Smart Adeyemi’s call for the death penalty to be applied to corrupt public and political officials in Nigeria, my first instinct, being very cynical of our politicians, was to think that he was just playing to the gallery. I had this feeling that he was not sincere, coming from him, himself a beneficiary of a corrupt system of politics and governance. However, it was a most noble and brave call.

It is certainly a good thing to hear that a Senator in Nigeria is speaking out the frustration of the rest of us. The problem I see in this discussion however, is that there are no significant apprehension or even attempt to apprehend and prosecute sincerely corrupt officials. This is making the few that have been indicted but not convicted yet roaming around free daring the rest of us to do something about it. It is a collective slap in our faces.

Senator Adeyemi certainly was highlighting the damage that goes with what public officials have made of Nigeria, and her hijacked resources. But the death penalty he preferred as a solution to the problem of corruption can not work in a democracy, no matter how poorly it is practiced.

There are punishments better than death. Death takes only a few seconds to initiate. Long prison sentences with hard labour will always be effective deterrent against corruption. Wouldn’t it serve as a deterrent to others if the high class politicians like Bode George, Tafa Balogun (and even the yet-to-be-convicted James Ibori) are seen with cutlasses, spades and shovels working on a building site or cutting down trees on State farms under the hot sun and watchful eyes of brutal warders?

Death penalty may not be the appropriate punishment for corrupt officials if democracy is what we claim to practice. While we all condemn the act of corruption by public officials, enacting laws that prescribe death penalty may be an over-kill. The right prescription in my view is to have corrupt officials prosecuted and reprimanded in prison with hard labour, while at the same time recover all the stolen funds from them.

Capital punishment is particularly risky in Nigeria where the courts are ridden with corruption and where the Nigerian judicial system is beset by corruption and nepotism. There is no guarantee that a death sentence is objective.

 I quite agree with the argument that “No stolen money or property is worth a life. Confiscation of money stolen and all other assets owned by a public fund embezzler, including commitment to many years in the prison, should be enough punishment for these kleptomaniacs.”

Advocates of capital punishment for corruption argue that the death penalty is an effective means of state-driven innovation, especially against entrenched or widespread defective social structures. Its use against corruption is not in itself new, it is still applied for that reason in China. The recent expenses scandal in the United Kingdom is a reminder that corrupt politicians are not found only in developing countries. Corruption, self-enrichment, and nepotism are also part of the political culture in western democracies so much that they form a major argument against democracy itself.

Widespread application of the death penalty with low thresholds would ultimately disable the political parties, and end recruitment to the political class. In that way, it would remove two primary sources of corruption.

It is true that we recognise that the death penalty effectively deters corruption. However, distaste for a society with frequent executions, is probably the main factor in rejecting the death penalty for non-violent crimes.

Corruption in China is a crime that draws capital punishment. Vietnam is another country that prescribes death penalty for official corruption. According to Chinese Criminal Law, the death penalty applies only to those criminals that commit extremely serious crimes, while those who are not subject to immediate execution may be sentenced to death with a two-year reprieve. Specifically, embezzlement conducted with more than 100,000 yuan (US$ 12,353) is subject to no less than 10 years in prison or life imprisonment with property confiscated,  while those with particularly serious circumstances can be executed. The circumstances of the crimes are taken into account. In addition, capital punishment must also undergo further judicial review after first and second instance trial procedures to guarantee accurate applications of death penalties.

Adejumo is the Global Co-ordinator of Champions for Nigeria.

Akintokunbo A. Adejumo