What are traps? Traps are devices or mechanisms set up to catch trespassers. Ideally, the rule of law should be obeyed outright in Nigeria, as well as in other nations across the world. It is a social construct created to help police our societies, maintaining safety, equity, and sanity. However, the reason it is a trap in Nigeria is not that the rule of law does not exist in Nigeria, but because unlike in many other places, and to a far greater degree, the rule of law is set by the haves, and the have-nots have to wait or suffer.
To understand Nigeria, is to understand that you have to forget what you know about normalcy. You see, a good example is that theft is a crime and stealing is clearly against the rule of law. However, in Nigeria, you cannot look at it as a surface, open-and-close phenomenon. It all depends on who steals and what is stolen.
Segun Olowookere’s case became one of Nigeria’s most widely discussed examples of how harshly the justice system can treat poor people. At about 17 years old in 2010, the young boy was accused of stealing a chicken and some eggs. He flouted the rule of law, allegedly, and should be punished. However, he was arrested and held in prison for four years while his case went back and forth in court. Finally, in 2014, an Osun State High Court sentenced him to death by hanging under robbery laws. Now 21, Segun was facing the death penalty for stealing a chicken and, not to forget, some eggs too.
For ten years, Segun remained on death row while human rights groups and the public continued to question how such a sentence could stand. In some good news, in December 2024, he was finally pardoned by the governor of the state where the crime was committed. In total, he spent 14 years in Nigeria’s dehumanizing prison system, enduring the reality of death row, all because he stole a chicken and some eggs.
In 2018, a series of videos published by Daily Nigerian appeared to show the Kano State governor, Abdullahi Umar Ganduje, receiving bundles of U.S. dollars as kickbacks from contractors, calmly folding the cash and slipping it into his flowing robes. The recordings sparked national outrage. Civil society groups demanded a full investigation, and many Nigerians saw the footage as undeniable evidence of corruption involving millions of dollars. Legal manoeuvres, jurisdictional arguments, and political interference effectively neutralised the crime, and it simply ended as a social media scandal. Instead of accountability, Ganduje’s political career advanced.
In 2023, he became the national chairman of the All-Progressives Congress (APC), the ruling political party in the country, a position that elevated him to the very center of national political power.
Another case is that of Azeez Fashola, also known as Naira Marley. Azeez is a popular musician in Nigeria, and in 2019, he got into the news for the wrong reason. The Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC), a law enforcement agency in Nigeria, arrested him on publicly documented cyberfraud charges, alleging that he had been in possession of credit card information not belonging to him. The case dragged on for years, repeatedly adjourned and stalled, with no conviction, no closure, and no substantive punishment. Despite the serious nature of the allegations and the extensive media coverage, he has continued to release music, perform publicly, and maintain a thriving career. He was even made an ambassador by the National Drug Law Enforcement Agency (NDLEA). To this day, the matter remains unresolved.
The irony is that the more you steal, the lower your chances of facing the law.
Now we turn to the law and the enforcement of said laws. The Nigerian judiciary is a cacophony of misplaced intentions. As a result of questionable decisions by the executive arm of government, aided by the utter derailment of the legislative arm, the judiciary ideally meant to regulate the country and maintain the rule of law has become a joke. Another irony is that the symbol of justice is a woman holding a weighing balance and a sword, with her eyes blindfolded. What currently exists is the woman, wide-eyed, tipping the scale whenever she likes, for whatever she is paid to like. Her sword comes down not in justice but in favor of the naira. The sword also comes down ASAP As Slow As Possible. With multiple adjournments that can span months, court cases often take years to be resolved, if at all.
This is not an article written to criticize the judiciary in Nigeria, but this picture being painted is important in order to understand why the rule of law stands no chance. The judiciary is so badly weakened that it only accelerates for naira, and human rights have to sit and watch. The rule of law has taken a back seat, and it is not necessarily because it is not respected or categorically being trampled upon, as one might imagine. It is because the system simply does not have the capacity to enforce it.
There is a popular saying in Nigeria, so common that it exists in many of the country’s multiple languages: “A man cannot chase rats in his house while the house is on fire.” It means that when there are bigger problems, one cannot be encumbered by the pursuit of lesser issues. In Nigeria, the rule of law as it pertains to ordinary citizens has become a lesser issue.
The country knows what the rule of law is. Most people can spell out different human rights, what they mean, and how important it is that they should be maintained. But enforcement is so low on the ladder that it is forgotten. The only people with the resources to make the country remember are the wealthy.
To conclude, the rule of law is obeyed in Nigeria. It is celebrated, and lots of efforts are being made across the country to educate citizens about it. However, enforcement is a luxury that only a few can afford. And those few can choose to trample upon it because they control the means of enforcement.
Written by Dr. Florence Omisakin
