In this interview, the host questions a Nigerian lawyer (referred to as Tuweti) about the accessibility of legal protections for ordinary citizens. The discussion reveals that while the law is formally designed to protect people, in practice justice is often a single decision away and heavily dependent on personal connections and financial resources. Tuweti explains that petition fees, mobilization charges, and informal payments to police are commonplace, and that law‑enforcement agencies may not act without these payments. The conversation highlights systemic corruption, the necessity of knowing the right officials, and the disparity between statutory rights and everyday reality. Despite these challenges, Tuweti expresses cautious optimism, noting that there are still honest officials who perform their duties properly, and he encourages the common man to seek out these good actors. The interview underscores the gap between the law on paper and its implementation, the financial barriers to justice, and the mixed hope for reform.
Chapters
How close is an average individual who doesn't know the law to jail?
It's always a decision away.
Jail time is a decision away.
Yes, decision away.
Do you feel the law protects Nigerians?
Well, the law is made to protect people.
I like the fact that you're not giving yes or no. Do you feel an average man gets justice?
It depends on the room they walk into.
So now you have to know who?
Yes, and does not really have to be somebody high up there. It's just about meeting the person who are set to do their work irrespective of—
Can an average person get justice by just following the provisions of the law without having any connection?
Well, they may not really get it. In a very sincere perspective as a lawyer, there's this perspective that is quite worrisome to me, and that is, um, you know, paying for petition. Yes, yes, paying for petition, it can be a lot. Quite a number of—
In Nigeria, do you also pay for mobilization?
Oh, you have to, because this is administrative fees for them.
They will not go after the criminal until you have paid?
Yes, because really you want police to carry their car, their personal car. They don't even have a van to start with. And then these people, they are not even given administrative impress or whatever to run the police station. They will eventually ask the common man to— he said that you are paying me or I'm not moving. They will ask you for money to run. In fact, they will ask for money for paper to write your reports.
Is that supposed to be so?
It's not supposed to be in an ID society, really.
Even in our society, is that what the law says?
No.
So is it illegal? Is that illegal? So legally, what's the hope of the common man?
For me, I believe in the Nigerian project. For every profession, there are the good ones and there are the bad ones. Really?
I get you. Yes. Now you're saying someone stole another person's phone, you've tracked the phone, you know— okay, they will ask you how you track the phone, but you know who stole the phone. To get the law to move from point A to point B, you pay for mobilization?
Not to get the law, to get the people who are supposed to enforce the law.
Okay. So to get the law enforcement agencies to move from where you are to the person who stole the phone, you need money.
Yes, much money.
If you have money in excess, would you be looking for phone in the first place?
Well, that's a very, I mean, worrisome reality.
So in the Nigeria of today, there's no hope for the common man legally?
There's hope. I still believe there's hope.
You believe?
Yes, and I know it's because, like I said, I've seen, I mean, people who are all out there, I mean, they're doing their work really well. And then you've seen the rotten ones too. So I hope the common man walks into the hands of the good ones who are trying to do their job.
How do you identify them?
That is—
It's concerning what we are discussing. Tuweti, do you feel again that the provisions of the law is accessible to the common man? In the sense that by not paying bribes, not knowing anybody, just following the protocols of the law as stipulated, can a common man get justice? If the answer is yes, it
