Nigerian Politician Who Proposed Death Penalty for Drug Traffickers Opposes Same For Corrupt Public Servants

A Nigerian politician who proposed the death penalty clause for drug traffickers has rejected the same proposal as punishment for corrupt public officials like him in the country.

The man is Senator Ali Ndume (APC, Borno South), the Chief Whip of the Nigerian Senate.

Last week, he persuaded his fellow senators to amend the National Drug Law Enforcement Agency Act which prescribed life sentence for persons found guilty of trading in hard drugs and narcotics to death penalty. 

In a Channels TV program, Politics Today on Tuesday May 14, Ndume while taking questions on his stance, however argued that corruption by politicians is a “small one” when compared to other crimes. He rationalized that the difference between the corruption of politicians and that of others is that the corruption of politicians is “people-driven” because they “steal and share with the people”.

While nations like China, which in 2021 made corruption by high state officials punishable by death – are tackling corruption to clean it out for rapid national development, a Nigerian politician not only brazenly owned up to it but defended it.

“I have been to the National Assembly, I can’t say because we are on TV now and not telling the truth”, Ndume told his host, Seun Okinbaloye. “If the death penalty is supposed to be included in corruption, I will support it but you don’t go and kill someone that stole one million or one billion, no. But someone who steals one trillion of government money should be killed.”

N1 Trillion is the equivalent of USD 1 Billion.

Absurd Argument

“If you compare us, politicians, to all other corruption, it is very small. Our corruption is people-driven. If you steal it, you will go and share it with the people. If you don’t, you are not coming back for four years. There is no reason for stealing”. 

Mr Ndume reiterated he supports the capital punishment for drug traffickers because “The death penalty is the best deterrent for those being caught for drugs. If you do drugs, you are killing people. In fact, that means you have destroyed the lives of so many people and killed so many people.” 

Senator Ali Ndume has been a member of the National Assembly since 2003. He is one of the longest-serving legislators in Nigeria’s history. The absurd logic of the senator is disrespectful to his constituency and the country at large.

Ndume should learn that drug lords like Pablo Escobar of Columbia also shared his ill gotten money with the people, but that did not in any way moralize his crime.

As the world’s capital of extreme poverty, Nigeria’s political corruption like Senator Ndume described, is a central factor in her underdevelopment. Unpaid pensioners, lack of potable water, bad roads and infrastructure, poor and unaffordable medical services etc. are direct consequences of corruption of political leaders, and has left millions poor and led to their untimely death.

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