I grew up hearing that law is for everyone. That nobody is above the law. We were taught in school, our parents told us and our politicians say it every election season. And for a long time many of us believed it.
Well maybe it's actually truly in other countries, but I don't think it is so in Nigeria. I live in Nigeria and I watch things happen here every single that made that phrase " nobody is above the law" sound like a joke .
I have heard and seen a young man get arrested and spend months in jail just because he couldn't afford bail. No conviction, No proper hearing, just waiting, rotting because poverty made him invisible to the system that was supposed to protect him.
And then I have watched men who stole money that was meant for roads, hospitals, schools walk around free. Giving speeches, attending events, smiling for the cameras. There cases filed somewhere, pending indefinitely. And it got me wondering "Are laws truly for everyone"?
A poor man caught stealing bread to feed his family would receive jungle justice and can spend months in pretrial detention, while a wealthy man who steals money through fraudulent contract will hire 10 lawyers, file twenty motions and be seen at the dinner party before his case is even assigned a hearing date.
This is the part people don't talk about enough. Laws did not fall from sky. Somebody wrote them and I believe that person was not a poor person. They feel that the people who made the law are wealthy. They're connected . We all know this , even if we do not say it, in our society the same offence do not carry the same weight for everyone. It solely depends on who commits it.. A young man from a poor background would likely be harassed, searched and even arrested on suspicion. But someone driving an expensive car through the same road would wave and move on.
It's sad that we have a system that talks about equality loudly while quietly serving the people at the top. The law that supposed to be for everyone has now become one more thing that happened to us instead of for us.
