Nigeria is a country of law and order, to say the least. At least, this is what they will say on paper. However, it is a different ball game entirely in real life. It is simply a country where the citizens hardly know their rights or what is obtainable in their country's law. Worse still, those that have been primarily trained and being paid to uphold the law often show a gross lack of understanding of the law.
A country in which police officers can arrest you for carrying unusual haircut or for using expensive phones, where police can break down your door to search your house without any search warrant, and where police can just stop, demand to search your phone and arrest you for having cryptocurrency-related chat or transactions on your phone is far from being a lawful country.
It is really not that there are no laws, it is just that either people do not know it or the laws are being deliberately misinterpreted to suit a purpose. This is where it gets tricky for innocent law-abiding citizens that just want to go about his/her day to day activities and try as much as possible to stay within the confines of the law. How do you know if you are breaking a law if you do not know the law? If there is a body or a group of bodies dedicated to educating the masses about the law, they must be doing a really terrible job at orientating the masses.
Most, if not all, Nigerians buy, sell items, transact and do other forms of businesses innocently without knowing that they might be breaking one law or the other. Unfortunately, the terrible policing system exploits this ignorance to extort and victimize citizens as they deem fit. A couple of experiences that I have had now made me know to better, at least, to an extent.
Mr. A bought a car and register it in his name according to Nigerian law. He continued using this car for a couple of years, renewing the papers as at when due. He then decided to sell this car in favour of another one. He placed a 'for sale' notice on the car and within a week after a series of different potential buyers have haggled, he sold off the car at an agreeable price. The buyer came from another part of the country, over 300 km away from where Mr A is based.
Years go by and the buyer of Mr. A's car also got tired of using the car and sold it off to another person. To cut the long story short, a car that was registered in Mr. A's name now belongs to Mr. Z who happens to be the 5th user of the car. In all these transfers of ownership, nothing was done to ratify it according to Nigerian law. Physically, the car belongs to Mr. Z, but on paper and according to records, it still belongs to Mr. A.
Problems started when Mr. Z got involved in a hit-and-run accident. Unfortunately for him, the victim was able to capture the registration number of the vehicle. The case became a police case and after series of investigations, Mr. A, who happens to be the owner of the car according to records had to be arrested and prosecuted. even though he was arrested hundreds of kilometers away from the accident scene and he has a foolproof alibi.
Mr. A was a bit lucky that the victim of the accident only sustained minor injuries and was ready to take monetary compensation. Mr. A was found guilty and fined accordingly in what could have been avoided had it been that a transfer of ownership was done according to law.
The case of Mr. A is still a bit lenient. Many have been imprisoned because a car register in their names was used to conduct a robbery in which many were killed, even though they themselves know nothing about the robbery.
We should always have it at the back of our minds to change ownership of whatever we are selling off our properties, not just cars. A mobile phone is another very sensitive item to buy off someone without adequate documentation according to law. Not just that, we should endeavour to know our laws, especially those that directly affect us.
Stay safe out there everyone and thank you for reading my humble submission.
