Justice Must Be Consistent if Nigeria Truly Wants Peace, Not Jailing Kanu While Negotiating With Bandits
November 20, 2025 By Ayuba Doekyil With today’s life-imprisonment sentence handed down to Mazi Nnamdi Kanu, the Nigerian justice system has shown that it can act with firmness when it chooses to. For years, security agencies and the federal government accused the IPOB leader of serious offences, from encouraging attacks on security personnel to allegedly inspiring violent actions in the South-East. These accusations, whether accepted or rejected by different groups, have now ended in a judgment that sends Kanu to prison for life. If the law decides that someone must face punishment, then the law should take its full course. This is the kind of justice many Nigerians have been asking for, a justice system that is bold and not influenced by politics. But justice must not be selective. Across the North, entire communities have suffered under the hands of bandits who kill, kidnap, and destroy without mercy. Yet, instead of facing the law, many of these ba...