Zuma’s historic conviction and lessons for Nigeria

This is not the best of times for former South African President, Jacob Zuma. Recently, the highest court in South Africa, the Constitutional Court, sentenced him to 15 months in jail for contempt. Mr. Zuma had defied the court order to appear at an inquiry into corruption during his time as president. This sentence may appear short. But for many lovers of democracy and rule of law, it is not about the length of the jail term that matters but the significance and lessons therein. 

Zuma faced a number of corruption allegations during his time as the President of South Africa which ended in 2018. He testified only once at the graft inquiry headed by Justice Raymond Zondo. When he refused to appear subsequently, the inquiry asked the Constitutional Court to intervene. 

In announcing Zuma’s imprisonment, Acting Chief Justice Sisi Khampepe said Mr. Zuma, rather than come to the court to explain his actions, “elected instead to make provocative, unmeritorious and vituperative statements that constituted a calculated effort to impugn the integrity of the judiciary.  I am left with no option but to commit Mr. Zuma to imprisonment, with the hope that doing so sends an unequivocal message…the rule of law and the administration of justice prevails.”

This is how it should be. Rule of law is not only the bedrock of any strong democracy; it is also no respecter of anybody. It presupposes that everybody is equal before the law.

Before Zuma, many other foreign leaders had been similarly convicted. In Israel, former Prime Minister Ehud Olmert was jailed in 2016 for fraud and obstruction of justice as a trade minister.

In France, former President Nicolas Sarkozy was also convicted and sentenced to three years in jail for corruption earlier this year. Even the corruption case is nothing when compared to what is happening in Nigeria. He was said to have tried to bribe a judge in 2014 when he was no more in office by suggesting he could secure a prestigious job for him in return for information about another case. French court described the crimes as influence-peddling and violation of professional secrecy.

Ex-Peruvian authoritarian leader, Alberto Fujimori, also suffered humiliation out of power. He was extradited to Peru in 2007 and sentenced to 25 years in prison for commanding death squads that massacred civilians during his time in power. He was also found guilty of corruption. 

In the United States of America, the Watergate scandal which involved former President Richard Nixon, who was President between 1972 and 1974, led to his resignation. Nixon’s administration had attempted to cover up its involvement in the June 17, 1972 break-in of the Democratic National Committee headquarters at the Washington D.C. Watergate Office Building. Most of those who aided Nixon, especially his administration’s top officials, were indicted and convicted.

Convicting a former or current President is rare in Africa especially in Nigeria. What South Africa did was novel and worthy of commendation. It is a signal for other leaders on the continent to realise that power is transient. The crimes any of them commits at any time will come back to haunt them.

The judiciary didn’t see Zuma as former President. It didn’t see him as being above the law. It saw him as a South African who is alleged to have committed a series of crimes. The court summoned the man but he ignored it. This is what public officers do here in Nigeria with impunity. Yet nothing happens to them. Zuma forgot that power has its limit particularly when you are out of it. His conviction is triumph of accountability over impunity and pre-eminence of the rule of law over rule of force.

It is a plus for President Cyril Ramaphosa who is reform-minded. He has been making efforts to rebuild the state institutions which Zuma undermined in his nine-year rule. With the recent ruling of the Constitutional Court, he will be emboldened to continue in his reform agenda which will make for a better South Africa.

In Nigeria, people commit all sorts of crimes in office but are hardly brought to trial. What most politicians do is to join the ruling party and their sins are forgiven. Most of those who are harassed and probably jailed are those who have fallen out of favour with the powers that be.

Going forward, we advise our leaders at all levels to realise that what happened to Zuma can happen to anybody. Democracy is like a laboratory.  How you make yours is how it works. Our judiciary should be independent. Everybody is equal before the law. There is need to hold leaders to account. Our judges should borrow a leaf from South Africa. Ultimately, political and judicial reforms will go a long way in entrenching an enduring democratic culture in Nigeria.