The world watched as Simon Ekpa, a controversial leader of the Indigenous People of Biafra, was tried and sentenced to six years in a Finnish court for terrorism-related offenses. Justice in Finland moved swiftly. Evidence was presented, charges were addressed, and a verdict delivered. The process was efficient, transparent, and justice moved swiftly.
Back home in Nigeria, the story could not be more different. Nnamdi Kanu, Ekpa’s compatriot in the same separatist struggle, is still in detention, his trial repeatedly adjourned, his fate hanging in the balance like a cloud over a judiciary that seems unable, or unwilling to move with haste. Charges are leveled, counter-charges emerge, and months turn into years, leaving the public to wonder: is justice delayed because of complexity, or because it is convenient for the powerful to let it drag on?
This divergence is more than a bureaucratic anomaly; it mirrors an ugly reality in Nigeria’s justice system. A foreign court holds the law fearlessly and impartially, but our own system seems mired in delays, indecision, and political undercurrents. Citizens watch helplessly as selective speed becomes a tool, not a principle.
When justice is perceived as inconsistent, confidence in the system erodes, and rightly so.
The Ekpa-Kanu divide also exposes Nigeria to international questionings. How can the nation lecture others on the rule of law when it is unable to apply it within its shores? How can it demand respect for human rights when its own prisons hold men in legal limbo? The answer does not lie in demonizing the accused, but in confronting the institutions that are meant to be dispensing justice.
It is high time Nigeria’s judiciary remembered its purpose: to dispense justice swiftly, fairly, and without fear or favour. The world is watching, and citizens are demanding.
If the judicial system cannot behave with integrity, then the social contract on which it is built is violated, and trust once lost is hard to regain.
Nigeria owes it to herself, to victims of crime, and to the accused too, to ensure that justice is not only done, but seen to be done — consistently, transparently, and promptly.
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