James Ibori as a case study
It is quite certain, that this write-up would be intepreted from two mindsets; one, from the layman's point, who knows nothing of law but the little they grasp during passing conversations, the other, from the point of view of my learned friends, it is not my intention to discriminate the one from the other, NEVER! i just wish to to make it clear that i would be towing these lanes.
By the special grace of God, the 14th day of february, 2012 was one of the happiest day of my life, as it was on that fatefull day , that i became a bonafide member of the Nigerian judiciary. my Joy however, is always short lived when i hear people {even close freinds of mine} say things like "the judiciary is the cause of our problem" or "lawyers are not helping matters" or "wetin lawyers dey do sef", statements like this, make me wonder if am in the rigth place to be as a profession.
The Judiciary of any nation is the conscience of that society, it encourages good and forbids evil, it is the temple of justice and a respecter of no man. can we then say the same for Nigeria? i leave that to the conjecture of the reader, before i go on however, i would like to correct a misrepresentation that has enveloped the minds of millions of Nigerians about law. you see! 95% of what transpires in court is oblivous to the common man, thus, when a man goes to court for an aggrieved injury but does not get the remedy he desires either due to the skills and competence of the lawyer on the other side or due to one technicallity or the other, he comes out and say "the court has robbed me" or "x & y has bribed the Judge", which often times is not the case.
who is actually responsible for the bad name that former Governor of Delta state, James Ibori has brougth upon this beloved country of ours?, is it the judiciary, who failed to convict him under Nigerian laws?, or is it the Masses, shrouded with love of money, who voted him into power? way back in 1991, James Ibori was working in a hardware store in the London surburb of Neasdem, he was caugth by his employer allowing his wife to walk through the till he was manning, without paying for goods, they both pleaded guilty and were fined. barely a year after that, in 1992, he was convicted of stolen credit card with 1000 British pounds spent on it, this also led to another fine in a UK court. In developed countries of the world {a feat we aspire to achieve by the year 2020}, such person of questionable and fraudulent character cannot be allowed to hold the least public office, not to talk of being a governor of a state, but alas! this is not the case in Nigeria.
was it not Nigerians {Deltans to be specific} who granted James Ibori assess to $250 million of government treasury, by voting him into power? what did they expect? that he would become a priest when he assumes office? was it not Nigerian elder women{Deltans to be specific}, who paraded themselves topless in Kaduna state court premises demanding the release of James Ibori being fully aware of his embezzlements ? my point is this, the learned Judges of our various courts can only adjudicate a matter base on facts placed before them and not mere assumptions.
who is actually failing who in this country of ours? in better words 'who is a major contributor to our nation's underdevelopment?' in my humble opinion, tis the masses, for they have failed to know the true value of the vote in their hands, elections come and go, they go and vote a particular person into power, then shortly after that, they start complaining about how incompetent such person is.
The Goddess of justice is not blind but blind folded, meaning, she can see but cannot differentiate between classes or status, hence, what transpires outside the court room is entirley in our hands and no one else. it is my prayer that yesterday's foolishness would become tommorow's wisdom.
Thank you!
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