Valentine Obienyem
One of the greatest enemies of swift justice in Nigeria is the police. Too often, men and women intoxicated by malice or ego storm police stations with lies against their neighbours. Instead of throwing such complaints out, the police entertain them—sometimes even seasoning the lies with criminal charges that never existed.
The consequence is plain: our magistrate courts are flooded with trivial disputes dressed up as crimes. Real cases crawl at a snail’s pace, while the machinery of justice clogs under the weight of vanity and vendetta. As Will Durant might say, when law ceases to be a shield for the weak and becomes a weapon for the spiteful, civilisation itself is mocked.
Nigeria must make mediation compulsory. Let quarrels be settled at the gate before they choke the courtroom. Justice must not be reduced to a playground for petty grievances.
And let the police be watched. Crime is not a private quarrel; it is an offence against the state. To file a case in court should be a matter of merit, not of influence. When the police allow themselves to become errand boys for vendettas, they turn our courts from temples of justice into theatres of revenge.
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