It is a very difficult terrain to meander through, though some would descriptively refer to it as a rigged legal minefield, which require a dispassionate demarcation between imparting of justice or rule of law and the public opinion, where justice is supposed to be served at the behest of the public but its opinion should not taint the process into a mob effect. It is within such very pronounced lines, a prosecutor as a public officer, acts at the prompting of a public opprobrium, concern or complaint over a seeming illegality committed, be it any such offence which breaches a sacred trust sworn; a public office holder acting on a fraudulent dictate, an arms bearing security official abusing a sacred trust of protecting the public, any person acting on an official capacity in conspiring to subvert an entrusted mandate or even an elected politician’s partisan directive to the statutorily empowered investigation agencies, to enforce the law against a political opponent, because as an elected representative, the sworn oath of office restricts one from acting with partiality, ill will or on personal interest.
Thus it is within such circumstantial boundaries, the current happening in the polity seemed truly tasking to the operative norm, if not incomprehensible to the organizational system of Nigerian governance. An accused public official could elicit a lot of revulsion, for acting seemingly outside the realm of propriety, but other Nigerians see such action as part of an established norm, a kind of universal communal code that is taken as given. This could be exemplified with a government official who was appointed to satisfy a certain sectional quarter, like an appointed ministerial position existing to represent a federal character. For such persons holding those public offices, it is assumed that whatever was done, it was undertaken on behalf of the represented group, even if I has breached that line which separates legality from illegality, because by then, it is assumed that the line has become blurred with sentiment, personal interest and private biases.
But, it is a valid question to be asked, whether the public opinion as in personal interest of the public, has any bearing on the codified statutes laying the body of laws to be implemented, after all, aren’t legislations also valid instruments of the people, formulated and enacted to ensure a just and orderly society. In fact, how could a community which has laid a set of ground rules, now demand that such rule of law be applied objectively but only to the extent that it took effect selectively, meaning, where such laws were unable or unwilling to be applied, such should be a mitigating factor in the refusal to apply the full sanctions of the penal dictates as required. That could be easily explained with the current predicament of the Minister of Aviation, Mrs. Stella Oduah, who is accused of extra budgetary expenditure, inflation of contract and willful subversion of the Public Procurement Act. But, for the Nigerian public, especially those sharing tribal affinity and loyalty with the minister, what remains a mystery is whether such fate should not an accepted without it ever afflicting many an executive governor of a Nigerian state.
It is within such contextual predicament, though many would rather to prefer the word confusion, the inconclusive governorship elections in Anambra took place, within the premises of this discourse, the concern is not about who won or who lost, neither it is about even the actions or inactions of the connected parties to the elections. Rather, it is about the public opinion which trailed the incomplete outcome of the polls, where many a considerable majority of the commentary about the elections, justified the results from a very narrow prism of base emotions, pandering to ethnicity, sectionalism and pure religious bigotry. It is within that context of thought you could hear a so called educated fellow, rationalizing the seeming electoral result advantage of the candidate in front, to hatred of a particular creed as the reason why a particular candidate could not perform or rather achieve electorally, saying that somebody lost because he consorted with a Yoruba or it is because he has joined a Muslim Party.
This situation has reached a cataclysmic proportion, many would often wonder and ponder whether Nigeria as a nation, has a clear perception of any circumstantial happening being right or wrong, because, a typical citizen of this country could situate it within the context of personal interest and explain it suiting an aggregated individual belief, which millions would easily affirm with a concurrence as an honest truth or at least an accepted communal fact. Of course, public opinion matters in the affairs of a nation, as could be seen in a country like South Africa, where years of Apartheid has stopped it from adopting death penalty, despite high crime rate, because decades of a traumatized population makes resort to violent self help an easy option. But ours which obfuscate and confuse reality, as a general communal opinion is a dangerous path to self destruction.
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