Former Nigerian power minister Saleh Mamman has achieved the rare distinction of actually being convicted for high-level corruption in Nigeria, earning himself 75 years in prison for laundering $24.6 million. The conviction has been described as 'rare' and 'a follow-through,' which perfectly captures the depressing reality that holding powerful people accountable in Nigeria is apparently newsworthy for its unusualness.

Mamman was sentenced in absentia, suggesting he had the good sense to be elsewhere when justice finally caught up with his alleged money laundering scheme. His arrest has rekindled debate about who actually gets convicted in Nigeria's anti-corruption war—a question that implies there are people who should be convicted but somehow aren't. The fact that a former minister responsible for the country's power infrastructure was allegedly stealing millions while Nigerians endured blackouts adds a particularly cruel irony to the whole sordid affair.