In Nigeria; Go to court—or don’t go to court

By Prince Charles Dickson Ph.D.

Man: My friend dey owe me money

Woman: Wey dat your friend

Man: E dey opposite e dey order beer

Woman: you don’t mean it

Man: even send waiter to come give me beer ooo

Woman: Na lie

Man: Human being get as dem dey

Woman: wetin e come talk

Man: E go say e never dey, I go pay no dey go jail, if we come go police we fix date, if I no fit meet up, we fix another date, e say broda drink beer, If you no drink beer na you dey short. If e no dey e no dey. E say so I no go fit to enjoy because I dey owe you money

How much sef?

wetin deaf and dumb see for night na who e go tell

wetin fish see for hot oil na who e go tell

Fowl wey hawk carry him story na who e go tell

wetin man see for hustle na who e go tell

Slippers no know who get dey follow who wear am, follow who get am, dey follow who wear am

Nigeria is a beautiful land, it is the land of everything, and by everything, I mean everything, whatever is it that you desire you will find it, a nation where her people what it all, but are guilty of it all.

So, like it is said in local parlance it is not he that goes to the police first that wins the case. Go to court, for the more you look, you see less and get more confused.

The intra military conflict in Sudan is gradually turning out to be a full-blown war, a Nigerian patriot volunteers for his airline to bring Nigerian students who are form almost eight percent of nationals there, we refuse and spend over a $1M to move same students temporarily to Egypt amidst all manner of confusion, and logistics hurdles.

Go to court, in case you do not know, go and find out how many millions it takes to get a date in the Supreme Court Abuja, with bookings well into 2025, one law for the rich, another for the poor. We are all victims and victimisers, everybody wanting and waiting for his/her time to plunder the system.

My court-loving and court-going country still battles to get it right with justice, equity and fair-play, with all that the land is blessed with, we have the highest number of electoral disputed cases in Africa, did you know we have the highest number of market and allied fires in Africa, highest number of collapsed buildings with Lagos state alone accounting for sixty percent of the figures and we remain in court.

We are still battling with barely 4000MGW of electricity for 200M people, as of 2022, Nigeria with an estimated population of about 220 million people has a total military strength of about 223,000 personnel. This gives a ratio of military personnel to a population of approximately 11,000. Nigeria has about 371,800 police officers and a police-to-citizen ratio of 1 to 400.

We wanted to conduct a census that we were/are grossly ill-prepared for and afterwards we will go to court. The reason is simple, without much of a count we arrived at how we will spend $800M as palliative for some 50M poor Nigerians, all the maths does not add up, even the logic of subsidy for fuel has remained only a constant ploy at forever ripping our system. We have the crude, we don’t have the fuel, we are the victims being victimised.

Earlier I spoke about high numbers, with some N500M worth of drug seizures yearly, are we not the highest again when it comes to drugs in Africa?

Go to court and to court we went, the federal government in the 2017 budgeted the sum of N555 million for the establishment of national carrier and N200 million for consultancy for the establishment. And, in 2018, N50 million was allocated for the establishment of the carrier, while N20 million was allocated for consultancy. After several millions spent on that logo by Bahraini company 6 Communications we are still in court, the logo has not flown, the carrier is still not carried.

Let me end this way, as seen in the Sunny Side of the Street, Nov. 1989, once a man who had been slandered by a newspaper came to Edward Everett asking what to do about it. Said Everett, “Do nothing! Half the people who bought the paper never saw the article. Half of those who saw it, did not read it. Half of those who read it, did not understand it. Half of those who understood it, did not believe it. Half of those who believed it are of no account anyway.

The fact is that, on the right side of our brains there’s nothing left and on the left side there’s nothing right. We are in court, because leadership is lacking in persons who are completely detached from party politics, ethnic jingoism. We lack patriotic Nigerians, who are knowledgeable and experienced…and want to get it right outside the court.

Like the newspaper and slander, it would not matter in the court if we still cannot create a balance with intellect, hard work and patriotism in the zoning thing that has led us nowhere.

I beg to re-echo again that except there is an honest search for understanding, education, organization, action that raises the cost of state and casual violence for its perpetrators or that lays the basis for institutional change. There would be no answers; rather we would continually be plagued by the same questions and problems I highlighted in paragraphs above whether in court or out of court.

If we refuse to effectively manage or halt social disruptions that threaten our mutual co-existence and continue to watch almost helplessly as human inequality increases, social justice decays and poverty increases. The court will not come to anyone’s rescue.

We are still a nation of potential and little in achievement. We cannot do anything about it…but certainly we can do something…We are still the ones that can determine whether to do nothing! Whether we saw the article or did not read it, or read it, but did not understand it, or understood it, and did not believe it. Maybe we will be half of those who believed it, but are of no account anyway…the technicalities of the court, it’s our choice, and—only time will tell.