All animals are equal, but some animals are more equal than others. George Orwell in Animal Farm.
George Orwell while trying to portray the disparity and the class system that exists in society made this quote in his popular book, “Animal farm”. This quote has never been truer in any other society than the Nigerian society and by larger extension, the African society where there is a widening disparity and social stratification and where some individuals are more equal than others.
In Nigerian society, there is a factor that has stood as a strong distraction to the criminal justice administration and law enforcement and it is “the selective enforcement of the law”. This is the chief enabler and greatest reinforcement of lawlessness. In a society where some can act arbitrarily or break any law with the mindset that they are above the law or when mildly put, that they are more equal than others; some people cannot be prosecuted despite whatever they do because they belong to the ruling class or the upper class, this is making the society to swim in anarchy and lawlessness.
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The law should always take its full course on the lawbreakers despite their economic status, political status, social class and connection or power the person wields in society. If a common man will be prosecuted for that same offence, an uncommon man should as well be prosecuted.
Let’s cast our mind to the theory propagated by an English legal pundit, Professor A.V. Dicey in the rule of law. He postulated that three principles uphold a truly modern society and chase away anarchy; the second pillar he termed “the principle of equality before the law”, whilst the first principle is the impartiality of the judiciary and the third pillar is the principle of the protection of the rights and liberties of citizens.
Equality before the law, also known as equality under the law or legal egalitarianism, is the principle that all people must be equally protected or equally cautioned by the law despite the person’s status, office or power. We are all the same before the law.
In Nigeria today, this postulation of Av Dicey that everyone should be equal before the law is a fluke. It has never worked and it does not look like what may work anytime soon; this is still an idealistic theory, and not yet a realism.
Most public figures and political officeholders have been accused of the worst crimes but they are still going about their daily business without being prosecuted because of who they are. Some political office holders are even constitutionally shielded from prosecution by constitutional immunity, even after their political tenure, hence why they can act arbitrarily and act with no regard to the law because they know that whatever they do they can always get away with it and they actually do get away with it.
We yearn for a legal egalitarian society where everyone will be equal before the law. If you go against the law you get punished, if the law wants to temper justice with mercy it will not be because of your status. Both the rulers and the ruled should be subjected to the law. The president, the governors, the senators and all political office holders should be prosecuted whenever they go astray because when this is the case, the citizens will sit up, having in mind that if the political office holders can be prosecuted and punished, nobody will escape justice.
Theodore Roosevelt once said that no man is above the law and no man is below it: nor do we ask any man’s permission (or care about his status/class) when we ask him to obey the law.