INDEED, the situation in Nigeria now is like “the carmel passing through the eye of a needle – the gate of the sanctuary”.

Like the Igbos say, Onye obula si naya ji ofo, ofo amaluzi onye kelu ya. Everyone in Nigeria seems to be claiming that Justice must be seen from his own perspective hence justice, “Ofo”, is suffering in the hands of impostures; ditto in the world arena.

What a revealing shame by Femi Falana (SAN) that no fewer than 197 convicted criminals remain unaccounted for; that is: cannot be found in any Nigerian prison. Not done with that, the Director General of NIIA, Prof. Bola Akinterinwa reveals that about 20,000 “awaiting trial” in Nigeria suffer worse conditions than already convicted ones; revelations from NIIA brainstorming session on Nigerian prisoners within and abroad.

Now, Honourable Abike Dabiri and her friends fighting to repatriate Nigerian prisoners abroad, 6,000 of them, must think twice. Yes, the law says Nigerian government must protect Nigerians wherever they are in this world. However, the government that needs to protect its citizens wherever they are in the world allows the Carmel to pass through the hole of the needle, the gate of the sanctuary.

Since the current dispensation of democracy, the worst occurred as the then President pardoned, on-the-spot, with military alacrity, Speaker Buhari who committed crime against Nigeria. Late President Yar’ Adua condoned Ibori, later to be proved wrong by the British Justice. Now, President Jonathan is allowing two known criminals to warm themselves up and re-emerge on the scene of Nigeria’s political and financial pyramids.

These are indeed the “Bros me” syndrome distorting the Nigerian Justice. Wherever you meet a South-South person, he/she shouts “Bros me” to see if you will connect with him/her to allow corruption fester. If you meet a South West person, he/she will keep on speaking his/her language to you whether you understand or not, to see if you can connect so as to get corruption fester on. You meet a South East person, he/she will turn on his/her phone to engage in a conversation with real or imagined person to let you into his/her line of business to see if you can connect or not so as to understand the nature of corruption he/she deals in. If you meet a Northern person, he/she floats different kinds of government document for you, ranging from contract papers to contact names, and see if you can connect for corruption purposes.

This is where dubious foreign investors see loopholes to penetrate and make fast money or get duped. Hence, the man from South East in that dubious arrangement could say, he makes money for Nigeria; as inflow outcome is his goal; while others remain very friendly with the dubious foreign investors as outflow of funds outcome is their own goal.

Now think of $18 billion inflow as a result of Western Union and Money Gram last year, analyse the items, who and for what and the sources, you will know who is helping Nigeria. Then, analyse the outflow in terms of bureau de change operations and profit repatriation exercise, to know the connivers. Another funny and curious revelation was that a Nigerian from the South East reprieved of death sentence to jail terms out of the intervention of the Abike Dabiri group, was still found trading in drug from his prison and remitting money to Nigeria, hence reversion to death sentence.

The above analysis will tell you why outside Nigeria, any perceived evil doer who is Black could find it difficult escaping being called a Nigerian. At worse, the person will be called a Congolese, if he/she speaks French, another Black country marked out for elimination or destruction for easy access to their abundant mineral resources.

So, if there are no common understanding or values for Africans to face the other races of the world, Nigeria, nay Africa, is doomed.

Justice in Africa which is also conterminous with political power in the African traditional set-up must not enter in the hands of interlopers. Ofo holder is also the political authority in Igbo land; when dissociated, justice suffers.

These are reasons that make a Nigerian prisoner in foreign land waive-off any intervention by any government official for his/her repatriation to Nigeria – dysfunctional relation of the justice and leadership of the nation.

Prisons are for criminals; however, as foreigners have noted that Nigeria treats its big time criminals with connivance posture, they have learnt to treat both innocent and crime-laden Nigerians abroad alike. If thumb printing is not necessary for 70-year-old persons in Europe and the USA, what is the rational to imprison a 72- year-old Nigeria woman in Brazil for being inadvertently linked to a shameful deal.

Again, how do you relate the cases of honest Nigerians who responded to the toast of foreign investment attraction of “invest $50,000 and remain in South Korea” in the ’70s, only to be hounded now in South Korea as criminals.

Justice is agitating in all the parts of the world. Whereas Nigerians are hounded mercilessly in Asian countries’ prisons, they are treated better in European and US prisons. They prefer to stay in European prisons than to be brought back to Nigeria, what a paradox. Like it happened to Guineans during the Sekou Toure era, so also it is happening to Nigerians; unfortunately and inversely, it is happening in an era of relative boom and democracy in Nigeria. There is a dysfunctional dimension to that and it is high time the current political dispensation acknowledged it and proved that Nigeria is suffering the syndrome of “Bros me”.

On the world scale, it is difficult to understand how justice operates in favour of the most indebted citizens of a nation against those merely struggling for basic needs of life. In Africa, the seemingly most corrupt person wields power against the honest ones.

In concrete terms, by the report of “L’Express”, USA owes $16.7 trillion, translating to about $80 billion on each US citizen, USA is the surreptitious, covert or overt custodian of the world’s justice. In Africa, the reigning countries, South Africa, Nigeria and Egypt are ruled on corrupt terms, hence the custodians of Justice there are seemingly interlopers, warding-off the honest ones.

Mr. VICTOR ARIOLE, a doctor of philosophy, wrote from the University of Lagos.