Impunity is a Nigerian

Im·pu·ni·ty  

n. pl. im·pu·ni·ties

Exemption from punishment, penalty, or harm (The Free Dictionary)

I’ve been thinking a lot about this word recently, in fact, it springs to mind every single day now.  Any time I pick up a newspaper, that word is splashed all over the pages albeit thinly veiled as news about the latest happenings in the country. Whenever I drive around, that word jumps at me every time I have to stamp on my brakes suddenly to avoid being hit by a ‘danfo’ or  ‘okada’ or just the next fellow in that flashy car who feels he is the ‘king of the road’! It gets my heart racing in fear when I am suddenly faced by a motorist driving against the flow of traffic for no other reason than the fact that s/he can and will get away with it. The word screeches from the sirens of ‘VIPs’ of dubious means and character. It honks from the mindless use of horns that distract rather than alert. Impunity stalks me, mocks me and thumbs its nose at me; it says to me “what are you going to do with all your outrage, huh? It needles me asking “do you think anyone really cares?”

That word whines every time I watch one of the endlessly televised senate/house probes (it is rather ironic that something or someone is always being probed in a nation that lacks probity).

Take the latest embodiment of impunity in our country, those faux jihadists cum nihilists who strut around detonating bombs and shooting people randomly. I am always mystified by the fact that they are described as ‘faceless’...these people grant interviews (they even complain stridently about being misrepresented by the media); they walk into TV studios; they are veritable publicity hogs and yet they are faceless!

Then what about the fuel subsidy cheats?  Apparently it is legal to receive payments that you are not entitled to in this Country of mine because they are not going to be prosecuted. That word again!

I also think of the numerous high profile arrests made by our dear EFCC, arrests that never end in conviction. Lawyers are quick to point to the fact that a judge can only convict based on the evidence set before him and I totally agree. However the lackadaisical and laissez faire approach to the prosecution of serious crimes just buttresses our culture of IMPUNITY!!!  That is the only reason a foreign prosecution service would spend 6 years building up a case when our prosecutors couldn’t be bothered. It is because, in that country, crime and punishment go hand in hand.

It seems to me that you literally have to leave the shores of our beloved Fatherland (or is it Motherland?) to be punished for breaking the law. And even then, some people are not happy about this, they complain that foreign punishment is rather ‘malicious’.

Whilst pondering this phenomenon, this unfortunate aspect of all things Nigerian, it suddenly occurred to me that if impunity could take on humanity, it would definitely be Nigerian.