Why The Rule Of Law Matters

We are so used to breaking laws that we never understand when people talk about law. It is always about our emotions at that particular time.

You think the people that are glad Ngozi is facing the Law are only happy because they are also husband snatchers. Useless single girls that don’t know the pain of keeping your home.

You think when you get emotional, the Law goes on holiday so you can vent and act out. You can go attack someone, beat the person, strip her naked, make a video and post online because your precious penis that the elders and church gave you in the presence of everyone has been touched therefore the law be damned!

You think people are mad about the president’s statement because we are potential ballot box snatchers and election riggers. The Law be damned! Our democracy is so precious we will put the Law on hold to uphold her. Death to riggers.

Nigeria does not have all the problems she has because of corruption, colonialism or being a contraption that shouldn’t be. We are where we are because we are a people that have no respect for the rule of law. The one thing that holds a society together and puts every man, woman, child and animal under the same basic conditions so as to progress as an entity.

Where everyone knows what the law says about an event but will apply the same law differently in deciding events based on WHO is concerned.

It is always a spur of the moment decision. How we are feeling at time t that decides what we consider fair and just.

This attitude of letting the situation, people involved and time decide what actions should be taken is the reason for everything not good in Nigeria.

Every institution is defined not by a charter but by the temperament of its sitting head down to little things like if the person likes pink the walls are pink even if the place is called Brown. If the person is from Timbuktu, three quarters of the workers there are from the same place. If the person is religious, everyone else will follow suit or at least pretend to be by joining prayers and religious events in a place that has nothing to do with personal religion.

No tenets. No rule of law.

So Nigeria continues to wobble along like a four legged, no arms creature who decides it’s better to crawl than walk.

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Disclaimer: This article is entirely the opinion of the writer and does not represent the views of The Whistler.