A postulation of the sociological school of jurisprudence holds that when law is applied to concrete social problems, it works effectively as an instrument of social control.
However, recent events in Lagos state would seem to be presenting an antithesis to this age old philosophy, which has formed the bedrock of orderly societies around the world. How else could one view a situation in which a court of law convicted certain persons of a criminal offence, and soon after a set of people queued behind one another to, in a most unconscionable way, compensate the criminals.
The incident took root from a grave traffic situation in Lagos state where many drivers casually contravened traffic regulations. Some of the worst displays of this form of indiscipline were to be found among motor vehicle drivers and motorcyclists who illegally and deliberately drove against the traffic.
The state government through its enforcement Task Force recently lamented that “80% of hit and run victims on Lagos roads were knocked down especially in the morning by motorists who drove against the traffic.”
Moreover, Law abiding motorists are known to have watched helplessly as perpetrators of this menace freely traumatised other road users who always had to pay for this through unending, stressful and unnecessarily extended travel time.
In the case of motorcyclists, many of the riders had virtually re-written the state’s traffic laws by riding illegally against the traffic. Theirs was a tyranny of numbers. They used their large numbers to overwhelm road traffic controllers and other law enforcement officers, foisting upon the state a real reign of terror.
It was against this background that the Lagos State Government passed the Lagos State Transport Sector Reform Law, 2018. This Law was designed to effectively address the chaotic traffic situation in the state and guarantee sanity on Lagos Roads.
To be certain, on an objective assessment, many provisions of the law appear quite harsh. Which could underscore the view that the state government was prompted by a dire situation to apply a desperate solution.
But does this fact derogate in any way from the status of this legislation as a law in force? Definitely not. Any suggestion based on the assessment of the efficacy of the law after due enactment remains a mere opinion. The Law is the law. And it ought to be obeyed.
It is the attempt to sabotage the efficacy of this law that forms the basis of the matter arising.
A provision of the law prescribes auctioning vehicles impounded as a result of the contravention of the traffic law. In some of the cases the state’s court sat and adjudged the culprits guilty with penalties that their vehicles be auctioned. The vehicles were auctioned and the culprits now cried out that the law was too harsh. In response, some Nigerians started doling out cash in support of the convicts. They started branding the culprits as “victims” of the Lagos State Government’s harsh laws. Some were on record saying there should not have
been any penalty that took away someone’s means of livelihood. And this suddenly started turning out as a trend. It now seems to be giving a bolder voice to sympathizers of traffic law breakers in Lagos State.
This situation truly calls for a serious concern and an introspection on the part of those who choose to compensate a culprit who has been convicted by a court of law based on a law in force. For, in reality they failed to take cognizance of certain factors:
Did they consider how insensitive this would be on those who had been permanently injured or those who had lost loved ones on account of reckless driving? Did they consider the encouragement their act would give to those who have permanently formed the habit of disrespecting the law? Did they consider the effect of their act on public policy?
A serious introspection would probably bring them to the cold reality that, viewed from any angle, compensating a criminal in this case is crassly obscene.
Not only does it assault every sense of decency in a supposedly orderly society, it makes a mockery of the trauma the Lagos road user daily experiences, and effectively works to sabotage the essence of the law enacted to restore sanity to Lagos roads.
Not even an attempt to pass this off as a show of kindness would appeal to any citizen or government with a clear sense of public decency. Already, serious protests are being raised in the public about this obviously misdirected act of public righteousness. For clarity, there is no attempt to canvass the immutability of any law here. Neither are we upholding the fact that Lagos State traffic laws are sacrosanct.
Rather, what is being challenged here is the unwisdom of protesting a perceived flaw in a legislation through an indirect act of promoting criminal behaviours.
There are established ways of prompting the authorities to effect a change in a law. Some of the ways are: direct appeal to the respective legislative body; representation to the government by the affected persons or bodies through various civil society organizations or related pressure groups; promoting debates in the media or directly challenging the offensive legislation in the court of Law.
Any action targeted at changing a potentially harsh law based on any of the listed methods would easily be perceived as truly altruistic and productive.
Conversely, we may be setting our society unwittingly, on the path of promoting anti-social behaviour, the end of which is a devil’s workshop.