Reporting News and Opinions
The ancient Roman statesman Julius Caesar divorced his wife Pompeia after she became embroiled in a scandal, despite there being no proof of wrongdoing on her part. His explanation has echoed through the centuries: “Caesar’s wife must be above suspicion.”
Nigeria has not been short of constitutional provisions. It has been short of the political will to make those provisions effective.
Passports are supposed to be the great equalizers of national identity. If two people carry the green-backed book stamped with the Nigerian coat of arms, the constitution insists they share the exact same claim to fundamental dignity and justice. But citizenship, like roaming data on a prepaid SIM, appears to depend entirely on which borders your passport happens to cross.
In the theater of Nigerian criminal justice, bail is the sparkling prop they wheel out to dazzle the audience with tales of constitutional benevolence, only for the curtain to fall on a punchline so absurd it would make a stand-up comedian blush. Our dear leaders preach presumption of innocence while tying defendants in knots tighter …
A Certified True Copy (CTC) is an officially certified duplicate of an original document kept in court records or government custody. In Nigeria, CTCs are commonly required for court appeals, land matters, visa applications, verification processes and legal transactions involving public documents.
