A legal practitioner and public affairs analyst, Mr. Femi Falana (SAN) today blamed “senior lawyers and big men” for conniving to deprive the masses of law and order in the Nigeria.
Falana said “Here (Nigeria) the criminal justice system has been hijacked by the rich aided by senior lawyers”.
Falana, who quoted the words of late Lord Denning “Be you so high, the law is higher than you”, regretted that the reverse is the case in Nigeria.
He said “In Nigeria, Be you so high, you are higher than the law and that is why we are having the crisis of the rule of law in the country”.
He went further to mention cases of “big men” in other climes where the rule of law is in place to affirm Denning’s assertion.
He mentioned the British Lawmakers who were sanctioned for false claims of as little as 1,000 pound sterling, the chief of staff to former Brazilian president, Lula da Silva, Jose De Suis, former Italian Prime Minister, Silvio Berlusconi, present and former Managing Directors of the International Monetary Fund (IMF), Dominique Strauss-Kahn and Christine Lagarde respectively, both from France and former Philippines president, Gloria Arroyo.
The aforementioned are either facing trial or have been jailed, for conducting themselves in manners contrary to what the law stipulates, because of the presence of the rule of law in their countries and the fact that they are not above the law Falana said.