'LADY JUSTICE: MUST THE STRENGTH OF A MAN'S CASE DEPEND UPON THE DEPTH OF HIS POCKET?'

In this satirical commentary, Yomi Obafemi, a Legal Practitioner, interrogates the N500,000 (Five Hundred Thousand Naira) “Fee for Transmission of Record” set out in the recently released SUPREME COURT (MANDATORY UPLOAD OF ELECTRONIC COPIES OF PROCESSES, RECORD OF APPEAL, AND OTHER MATTERS) PRACTICE DIRECTIONS, 2026

LADY JUSTICE

Lady Justice! Why is your veil down?
Have you stopped feeling the tears
That fall upon the dusty streets?
Or have the cries of the poor
Become too faint for your ears?

Lady Justice! Why is your scale now cast in gold?
Was it not once balanced by the weight of truth?
Why must justice now demand a fortune
Before she opens her guarded doors?
Why does the poor man count his coins
While the rich man counts his victories?

Lady Justice! Why have you chosen the Palace above the Street?
Why have your chambers grown so distant
From the labourer, the forgotten man
Who knows no language but the language of survival?

Once, they said justice was blind
Blind to wealth, blind to status, blind to power.
But today, Lady Justice,
Your veil seems to hide your eyes
While gold whispers into your scales.

Lady Justice! You now live far away from the common man!
Between him and your temple
Stand towering walls of procedure,
Endless adjournments, mounting fees,
And the frightening cost of being right.

The man on the street has a grievance,
But he cannot afford the journey to justice.
He has truth in his hands,
But no money to carry it through your gates.
He has a legitimate claim,
But justice has become a luxury
Reserved for those who can pay the price.

Must the strength of a man’s case
Depend upon the depth of his pocket?
Must the poor seek miracles
Where the law should provide remedies?

Lady Justice! Will my prayers be heard again
In your apex temple?

Will the doors of the Supreme Court
One day open not merely to those
Who can survive the cost of getting there,
But to every Nigerian whose voice
Deserves to be heard?

Lady Justice
We do not ask you to favour the poor.
We ask only that you attend to them.

We do not ask you to bend your scales.
We ask only that they remain balanced.

We do not ask you to abandon the Palace.
We ask you to remember the Street.

For justice that cannot be reached
By the common man
Is justice slowly becoming a privilege
And a privilege is not justice.

Lady Justice…
The Street is still waiting,
The poor are still knocking,
The oppressed are still praying,
Somewhere beneath the dust,
Beneath the mounting fees,
And the towering walls of procedure.

Truth is still calling your name.

Lady Justice…
Will you come home?

Sigh.

I am Yomi Obafemi.

Obafemi is a Legal Practitioner and can be reached at obafemioffice@yahoo.com

‘LADY JUSTICE: MUST THE STRENGTH OF A MAN’S CASE DEPEND UPON THE DEPTH OF HIS POCKET?’

Leave a Reply