By Orobosa Agbonkpolo
Growing up in Nigeria, I witnessed 2 tiers of citizens with different fortunes before the law. Every cell in my body repulsed when policemen and soldiers pulverized innocent citizens often for difficult-to-see offenses. And they got away with it. And they often flaunted that they are above the law.
Under the aegis of this duality, I witnessed small-scale thieves aka robbers executed by firing squad while politicians who appropriated for themselves the huge resources of the state at great grave consequences to the citizens faced no repercussions.
I do not support thieves by any means. But is not the governor who makes away with the people’s money as much of a thief as the armed robber?
If one earns societal scorn and is rightfully punished, should not the other?
The list of such double standards in the society that I grew up in is endless. But what happens to such a society when those that get away with being demonstrably above the law of the land also wield the reins of power? Such litters our beleaguered experience in my Nigeria.
Can it be the reason we have struggled to attain ascendancy in nation building?
Personal Reflections on Injustice in Nigeria
In those formative years in the stern boarding school system in Nigeria, good character was a worthy pursuit. Thus our prefects, especially the enviable senior prefect, were a model of emulatable character. You could forecast who in the class was in contention to be a senior prefect.
He/she was often the most law-abiding, congenial, relatable, and unafflicted by impudence or arrogance while being no pushover in the academic realm.
My salubrious boarding house experience more than made up for the disaffection I felt in the double standards experience in the larger society. It has set me on a lifelong expectation that a leader be of doubtless good character and be law-abiding, not assigning preferential status to himself/herself.
Whether it be a small group, family organization, or a nation, good character is a nonnegotiable requisite.
The Promise of Egalitarianism in America
My elation knew no bounds when I chanced on a key value in the American society of “everyone has ‘equal justice’ and the important idea of the rule of law that means everyone must obey the law and no one is above the law.
It in essence affirms that the government and its leaders must also obey the law.
Documentaries about President Richard Nixon, a GOP forced by his own party to resign in 1974 in the face of incontrovertible evidence of breach of the law in the Watergate scandal only serve to highlight the egalitarianism in the US system.
These documentaries became a sumptuous fad for my curiosity and yearnings for a real egalitarian society.
Was it? Is it?
Or just a potent public relations stunt to draw contrast with the authoritarianism in the east, China and Russia and much of Africa?
Or maybe it indeed is a sincere attempt to be a society of equality under the law.
Such flight in fantasy sure got shored up by the presidential fortunes of Colorado senator Gary Hart going up in ashes for indiscretion in his romance world.
We witnessed Democrat stalwart Edward Kennedy’s assured political ascendancy drown as did his girlfriend in the Chappaquiddick waters in July, 1969.
He would never recover his political mojo, instead settling for kingmaker.
His offense?
He caused the death of another citizen and he was deemed less than transparent in his account of the tragedy.
The law and the society accorded him no preferential latitude.
We watched as President Ronald Reagan was grilled by the Iran Contra scandal committee.
President Bill Clinton was grilled publicly for his indiscretion with a young White House intern, Monica Lewinsky.
We witnessed junk bond guru, Michael Robert Milken fall for violating US security laws.
The US was indeed a society of equal under the law.
Or were we hoodwinked to buy and consume their numbing anesthesia portion?
The Trump Era and the Death of Equality Under the Law
THEN ENTER TRUMP!
The veil became torn asunder.
The deceit and camouflaging undone in full glare.
The duplicity and its hypocrisy NO LONGER IN DOUBT.
A felon who per the constitution CANNOT VOTE or get a decent job is President-elect.
An election interference that sank Richard Nixon overlooked and endorsed and repackaged as witch hunting and upon that the Presidency was gifted to Trump.
A QUI FOR PRO that rocked Reagan in the Iran Contra but this version of Mitch McConnell-led GOP let Trump ride free in the QUI FOR PRO UKRAINE scandal.
The Jan 6th insurrection, a federal crime per the constitution, was waved off by the Mitch McConnell-led Senate.
Here we are, Trump would never make the cut to be a senior prefect in my boarding school per the standard of character required of leaders. Yet we have Trump emerge president elect It is a classic pyrrhic victory for in the process, the US lost its long suffering status of “EQUAL UNDER THE LAW” for all its citizens. It is now a land of “UNEQUAL UNDER THE LAW” for its citizens.
Let us reel in it.
Orobosa Agbonkpolo
11/29/24
Comments