A precedent in law is a legal case that sets an example, principle or rule that a court or judicial body uses when deciding other future similar cases.
Its becoming somewhat of a trend for agrieved bodies in Nigeria to go to extremes to get the government to do its duties. In the case of the Niger-delta region, it took years of massive violence, kidnappings, destruction of state properties to get the government to consider their cause and do its duties. Not quite long all resident doctors in state hospitals across the nation went on strike to get the government to provide them conducive working conditions. The most recent of this, is the 6 month long shut down of all state owned academic institutions to get the government to fund the said institutions.
Violence, strikes, protests or other non-peaceful means of expressing grief aren’t recommended but what other options do groups of agrieved citizens of a country whose government seems not to care have. Its quite sad that things have to resort to this because if the government had done its duties there’d be no justification for those unlawful and non-progressive acts.
Another important thing to note is that as its becoming quite obvious that the government wont act unless extreme measures are taken, a lot of groups would start springing up to disturb the normal flow of activities to get the governments attention, both for justified and unjustified causes. This might lead to a total breakdown of peace and order as each group tries to make their actions profound.
This is a wake up call to everyone in the helm of affairs, do what’s right, give the people their rights. Develop the areas in which you are accorded control, lets stop the charade of self gratification and aggrandisement. Lets work together and make our nation great.
