Violent Crimes,justice and Democracy.

In a supposed democratic Nigeria; everyday dawns with News of innocent people dying in scores. The root cause can be attributed to a total break down of law and justice within d polity . The Nigerian police and the judiciary which are the constitutionally empowered bodies to maintain law and order have become the bastion of corruption;thereby turning the process of administration of justice into a cash and carry affair.

If I am to dwell on d various challenges facing the Niagerian security operatives and the judiciary, I ll need to write a minimum of nothing less than a thousand pages. The public having lost faith in the judicial system then resort to Violent reactions born out of frustration.

An Adamawa state High
Court sitting in Yola, has
sentenced a former
Secretary of the Nigerian
Union of Teachers in
Lamurde Local
Government Area of
Adamawa state, Mr.
Japhet Dadiye to two
years in prison over
N3.8million scam. Mr japhets mistake was that he didn’t steal enough to buy a favourable verdict through the bribing of lawyers, Judges and security operatives(EFCC and ICPC in this case).
Recent statistics released by the bereau of statistics a Govt Agency shows that over 100 million Nigerians do not hv access to N150 in a day yet politicians and their accomplices in d private sector steal and loot billions of Naira yet the judiciary seems to have been overwhelmed. Countless corruption cases are either pending (some since 2003) or have been concluded with ridiculous pronouncements and judgment. A case in point is that of the Former Governor of Delta state James Ibori who was acquitted of 170 counts of corruption and money laundering barely a year later he pleaded guilty to these crimes in a British court with his sentencing coming up in April.
Even with the glaring corruption in the system I can’t remember when last anybody has been convicted for corrupt practices.
In Nigeria’s form of democracy stealing in thousands and millions is a crime while stealing in hundreds of millions and billions is not. Our prison system has some 40,000 inmates 90% of which are awaiting trial, while 60% are their because they can’t afford legal representation or bribes to buy their way out.
Economic well being and adherence to d rule of law are connected in Many ways. An age old adage says “The idle Mind is d devils workshop”. With a population of over 30 million unemployed citizens we can comfortably say the Devil has a lot of employees among our teeming youths. When people loose hope in the judiciary the outcome is what we are witnessing today: Lawlessness and violence.
Another major reason for the rise in violence is the corruption of the electoral process through rigging. During elections, politicians recruit jobless youths and arm them to be used as political thugs only to be discarded after the elections. Victims of violence also tend to perpetrate reprisals when those responsible for inflicting violence on them are not prosecuted this degenarates into a circle of violence as is been experienced in plateau state.

If govt is sincere about curbing these orgy of violence, then the judiciary must rise up to see that justice is seen to have been done no matter the circumstance or status of individuals. Employment opportunities must be created through an enhanced educational curriculum that will re-orient the citizenry.