*Photo: The Ekweremadus*
A tragedy is an event causing great suffering, destruction, and distress, such as a serious accident, crime, or natural catastrophe.In literature a play dealing with tragic events and having an unhappy ending, especially one concerning the downfall of the main character.
The Ekweremadu case is a classic tragedy with the very rich, very successful in life senator the main character. Then Mrs Ekweremadu and Sonia and Dr Obetan supporting the main character. But often in this case, we tend to sentimentally forget another very important character in this tragedy: the victim of the exploitation
Unfortunately, almost all those who intervened on behalf of Ekweremadu, anchored their plea on the court to understand that EKWEREMADUs action was that of a loving and desperate father wanting to save his daughter.
This line of argument was reduced to dust by both prosecution and the judge who counter that the love of one’s daughter shouldn’t push one (a very rich and privileged senator) to endanger or sacrifice another (very poor and indigent)person’s son.
It is very difficult to objectively argue with this counter argument. At a certain stage the prosecution produced text messages where Ekweremadu was referring to 2 potential donors as “the light one or the dark one” , and the prosecutor shot at Ekweremadu “This is the language of commodity isn’t it, not altruism?”
I now move to interventions or pressure mounted by President Obasanjo and lawmakers some of whom congregated in London to “eye ball” the judge as he passed sentence. Im not a lawyer, but I had ab initio doubted if the series of unsolicited letters and statements by prominent Nigerians would help the case.
I even feared that such interventions no matter how well intentioned will be counter productive, be seen as an obscene attempt to interfere and toughen the resolve of UK judge to prove that UK is not Nigeria where Big Men get away with anything because other Big Men would intervene with the supposedly independent judicial system.
At other times in Nigeria to put pressure on the judge people are hired to besiege the court naked.
In particular I found SP Lawal’s intervention would have been funny were it not tragic: He asked the judge to be lenient because “this is the first time my colleague is involved in this kind of thing”(as if its expected that Ekweremadu should have done this several times before)
Also to note the UK tagged this case as “First of its kind” and a very good opportunity to show example that’d serve as deterrent.
Whether it was said or not, unfortunately there was this latent belief in UK that Ekweremadu is a powerful man from a “fantastically corrupt country’ where Big Man syndrome encourages impunity. When Ekweremadu said he started considering Turkey instead of UK for the operation in Turkey because it was cheaper, the prosecution retorted “You have the money”(implied youre a corruptly enriched Nigerian politician money cant be your problem)..
One important thing most people miss in this case, is that EKWEREMADUs action broke not only UK laws but also Nigerian law with the wordings almost word for word. That is to say, had our intelligence , Immigration and legal agencies been alert, Ekweremadu would have been arrested in Nigeria before he even left!
In many other western countries, a case involving a VIP or a celebrity or a very rich and powerful, is usually an opportunity to demonstrate judicial independence and that justice is blind.
When in 2008 US court was about to sentence famous actor Wesley Snipes for tax evasion, the defense pleaded for leniency based on the fact that Wesley is a well known actor. The prosecution shot back that there was no better time to show to all Americans that dodging tax is a crime, than when a well known celebrity is the culprit.Snipes’ long prison sentence should send a loud and crystal clear message to all tax defiers that if they engage in similar tax defier conduct, they face joining him and his co-defendants, Kahn and Rosile, as inmates in prison.
The law is very clear: people must pay their taxes,” said Internal Revenue Service Commissioner Douglas Shulman. “There is no secret formula that eliminates a person’s tax obligations, nor are there any special exceptions. The majority of Americans pay their taxes timely and accurately. Those who willfully violate the law must be held accountable.”