Conceptually, justice is the administration of law according to prescribed and accepted principles.
Justice in any of its forms is legal social, economic, personal, or political and must at all times reflect righteousness, equitableness, and above all lawfulness.
Justice is the cornerstone of human togetherness. In other words, it is the sure foundation on which to build peace and progress.
Put differently, the oil that lubricates social industrial, and commercial relations. More fundamentally, it accepts all human beings as persons, subjects, and owners of rights.
But somehow social and political justice have more often than not come under scrutiny because of their perceived abuse and violation in many developing countries and democracies of the world.
Aristotle in his politics said “All men think justice to be a sort of equality while Justinian in his pandects defined justice as to “live honestly not to hurt another, to give each his due”
The imperative of this is that all persons are equal before the law and being creatures of God are endowed with certain basic rights and freedoms like life, liberty, the pursuit of happiness, and self-fulfillment.
The question now is how have we as a people been able to promote these ideals in our society.
Surely not much, otherwise, we should not be hearing cases of people cutting corners in business or employment, appropriating that which one is not entitled to have, blatant greed, self-seeking, and other corrupt practices.
Today, in different strata of our society, corruption and injustice remain the all too familiar words and wrongs that are roundly condemned even by the principal perpetrators and beneficiaries alike.
While one admits that corruption and societal injustice in whatever form have been fully entrenched in our system of governance over time with little chance of being completely wiped out, it is important to point here that a fundamental change of attitude by all Nigerians particularly the privileged class is urgently required to achieve the change mantra of the present administration at the National, State and Local Govt. levels.
Such change has become compelling more than ever before if we as a people are desirous of building for ourselves a just virile and progressive society sustained by the rule of law.
Again, it requires us to brighten our perception of governance and redirect our minds to the key question of probity and accountability as a safeguard to drive home justice in its true form.
Agreeably given our level of advancement as a nation with diverse composition, we need a society whose citizens can secure, protect, and acquire justice as a matter of right and as a course of life.
Indeed, a just society is such that can provide a level playing field for the people in the pursuit of life where each individual should be able to achieve his or her personal best without being denied opportunities.
This means that we must strengthen our institutions such that obtaining justice will be a matter of course.
Similarly, security agents should be oriented to treat all Nigerians as equal before the law.
The situation where the rich and powerful are given all the preferences while the poor are treated as second-class citizens should be halted.
Also, all persons should be treated equally before the law: while laws that have become obsolete should be reviewed.
As of now our laws impose maximum sentences on the poor while the super-rich receive light sentences or fines.
Indeed, a situation where misplaced and misguided ethnic or political passion influences decisions or judgments given on national issues should be discouraged.
This is one of the many ways the rule of law can replace the rule of the jungle and the misuse of the coercive power of the state in society.
It will also promote the peaceful co-existence of individuals and groups with differing interests and thereby create the necessary condition of human flourishing – that is having more of the things that are good for humans to have.
All these entail righteousness, equitableness or moral rightness, conformity to truth, accuracy, propriety, integrity, and above all impartiality in our system of governance.
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