BY CHRIS GYANG

Underlying jurisprudence are two important concepts known as the letter of the law and the spirit of the law. The former refers to the exact words or written framework of the law and its intended outcome. The latter, on the other hand, is concerned with the reason for the law and its perceived, practical outcome.

It’s important to make the above distinctions and clarifications because our thoughts below concerning the ‘looting’ that followed the #ENDSARS protests in most parts of the country will be largely premised on these factors. It’s also pertinent to stress from the onset that we neither condone lawlessness and anarchy of any form nor the individuals or groups that perpetrate same.

Now, these are indeed trying times for the Nigerian people and our leaders saddled with the onerous responsibility of maintaining law and order for the good and progress of the country.

It could be said that the protests, which were chiefly initiated and directed by Nigeria’s progressive millennials who make up about 60 per cent of our population, took some of our country men and women by surprise. But, like we’ve consistently maintained, only the naive would say say that they didn’t see it coming, considering the fact that the country under the current leadership has been on a downward spiral for a long time.

If the truth must be told, it has taken the courage and determination of the Nigerian youth to radically awaken the nation to the reality that if both government and other citizens do not stem the tide of this dangerous drift, soon Nigeria will descend into sheer anarchy and become a real failed state – just like others on the African continent and elsewhere in the world.

But, unfortunately, that patriotic stride of the youth through the#ENDSARS struggle was hijacked, infiltrated and made to appear like a mere mob action undertaken by disgruntled and rudderless individuals. However, it has been widely alleged that The Establishment deliberately planted fifth columnists in the ranks of the the unsuspecting protesters to discredit and kill that epochal initiative which would have been the precursor to true and lasting change. Well, sooner than later, the truth shall surely emerge.

Today, Nigerians are still left with the scary spectres of extra judicial killings allegedly perpetrated by agents of the state intent on stemming the waves of desperate, hungry Nigerians from accessing government establishments and taking essential commodities necessary for their sustenance. Some state governments have thought it wise to impose curfews and even set up courts to try the alleged perpetrators who have been branded as ‘hoodlums’, ‘looters’, ‘thugs’ and given many other unsavoury and seditious epithets.

But, pray, can we in all honesty say that those Nigerians who trooped out in record numbers to help themselves to the garri, rice, Semovita, etc, stashed in government warehouses all over the country were truly ‘hoodlums’, ‘looters’ and ‘thugs’ simply taking advantage of the prevailing situation to ‘steal’ from their own very states?

This is a fundamental question that we must answer in all honesty and without prejudice if we must move our country forward – which our leaders and elites so much desire.

For the records, most Nigerians who besieged those warehouses and took away products cut across traditional party, religious and ethnic lines. For instance, in Jos North and Jos South local government areas of my dear Plateau State (where religion has always been a very divisive factor), both Christians and Muslims could be seen struggling side by side to grab whatever they could lay their hands on without bothering about those well entrenched dichotomies. Some commentators have correctly described that as “the solidarity of the hungry, dispossessed and oppressed.” Hunger has become a strong bond between the masses which has sent shivers down the spines of Nigeria’s overlords.

Furthermore, those who cared to critically scrutinize the composition of those desperate crowds that converged on those warehouses of shame must have noticed that, aside the vanguard of the youth, even senior citizens – male and female – were also scrambling for their ‘just desserts’, which they believed rightly belonged to them but had been cornered by rapacious governments for motives that are all but for the common good.

The determination of ordinary citizens to satiate their persistent hunger was so obviously intense that even the security personnel drafted to protect those warehouses dared not stop their inevitable surge. How do you stop people who have not had a cup of garri or rice for a long time from helping themselves from the plenty they know rigthly belongs to them?

Analysts believe that otherwise law abiding citizens wouldn’t resort to such behaviour had the government not impoverished and rendered them hungry and abysmally poor. In fact, this goes a long way to confirm the assertion that hunger has today become one of the greatest threats to our national security.

And now, some state governments have set up courts to try those arrested for allegedly ‘looting’ those warehouses while President Buhari has ordered individuals who took rice, garri, etc, to return same or face the full wrath of the law! In the case of Plateau State, seven courts have been constituted to try the 307 suspects so far arrested as at Monday, October 26, 2020.

It’s indeed ironic and laughable that governments which are sitting on a time bomb are struggling to try the same people that had clamoured for the trials of police officers who had wounded them so grievously. Inasmuch as we don’t condone lawlessness, should the authorities not be exploring avenues of amicably resolving the current crises rather than resorting to arm-twisting which may further exarcebate an already had situation?

We make this humble submission based on the fact that there are millions of Nigerians out who, one way or the other, stand with these ‘hoodlums’. And unknown to the powers that be, there are loads of people in government who also support them but can’t openly declare it for fear of obvious official backlash. Of course, people in government are not immuned to the pervasive hunger ravaging the land.

It’s in view of the above that we appeal to the governments concerned to apply wisdom and common sense in handling this precarious situation. They should desist from taking judicial and non-judicial actions that will only enhance the feeling among the masses that the common man who ‘steals’ a cup of garri to quench his hunger should be sentenced to 3 years in jail while a politician who openly and brazenly embezzles millions of naira gets away with a mere slap on the wrist and a patent caution to sin no more.

This brings us to the critical matter of the spirit of the law which some governments have jettisoned in their rabid bid to compromise these hungry, abused and dispossessed Nigerians in order to give them a bad name to unjustly hang them.

It’s very obvious that the country is presently in a precarious position. Applying the letter of the law to its fullest will definitely have the potential of sending the wrong signals to Nigerians, especially the restive and disenchanted youth.

Therefore, wisdom and common sense dictate that the spirit of the law be judiciously applied in considering the cases of these supposed ‘hoodlums’, ‘looters’, ‘thugs’, etc, who are now being lined up before the Buhari and other governments’ legal systems for prosecution because they dared to defy the system by snatching their own piece from what the elites call ‘the national cake’.

Nigerians are watching.

-([email protected])

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OF RICE, GARRI, SEMOVITA AND ‘HOODLUMS’, ‘LOOTERS’ & ‘THUGS’