EDUCATED ILLITERATES IN NIGERIA!!! SUMMARY MEANING OF THE PRESUMPTION OF INNOCENCE AND THE VERDICT OF GUILT. by Bar Emeka Ugwuonye, USA. Over the stories about the Minister of Aviation and some vehicles purchased by an agency in her department, I have again seen how ill-educated many Nigerians are. Forgive me if you think I am talking about you. It is probably not your fault if you are not well informed. Indeed, an average Nigerian has good reasons to be ignorant or ill-informed. He has been ruled for over 40 years by all manner of dangerous leaders who delighted in the people being ignorant. Remember that those who ruled you so corruptly could not have been able to do that if most people were well-informed. So, your government actively promoted ignorance and disinformation, and encouraged you to be uninformed. That practice has continued even today, which is why for 4 whole months Nigerian university students have been out of school without any idea when they would return to school. So, you are excused if you dont know some of the things you ought to know. One area where the collective ignorance of our people is seen has to do with the way they understand the meaning of guilt of a crime and innocence. I saw in the story about the Minister of Aviation how a mere rumor, not even a logically rumor, would create so much hysteria and cause people to call the Minister names and to declare her guilty of offenses that could not even be defined. It is incredible. And this is not the first time this has happened. In fact, in the eyes of some, I am actually a thief that stole 1.5 million dollars, and they still dont know how to put me in jail. I am forced to share with you again the meaning of the concept of guilt and innocence in relation to crimes. These are as original a concept as anything could be. A person is free and innocent in his ordinary and natural state. For a person to become guilty, a number of things must happen, and those form the cornerstone to the concept of due process. There must be some process of certain clarity and fairness before a person loses his innocence and becomes guilty. This is so natural and divine that even God did not automatically declare Adam and Eve guilty. God followed some due process. He presented His case against them. They had the opportunity to defend themselves. God allowed them to call witnesses to their defense. (Adam called Eve as his witness and Even call the serpent as her witness and God listened to all of them). They were even given the opportunity to controvert or contradict God (though they neglected to make use that opportunity probably because they were not represented by a lawyer). Yet, Nigerians are telling me that Ms. Oduah is guilty ... guilty of what? Indeed in a conversation online with a friend this afternoon, the friend urged me not to rush to say that she was innocent. That thinking struck me like a lightening. How could I wait before declaring her innocent. In fact, nobody can ever declare a person innocent because all are innocent. And for those of you who are familiar with courts, you must have noticed that the court never finds a person innocent. The court can only find a person guilty or not guilty. And that is because it is not the business of the court to declare people innocent. They are already innocent and would remain so unless they are found guilty. And the verdict of not guilty only operates to emphasize a persons default state of innocence. In the exchange between me and my friend, who was telling me not to rush to say that Ms. Oduah was innocent, I responded to him as follows: ...my brother, God knows I love you, and you make me laugh a lot, by your combination of a pure heart with fangled logic. A lot of the time, you are thinking simply as a well educated man, but who lacks knowledge of jurisprudence. Now, you are cautioning me to wait before what? To wait before I declare her innocent? That is the problem. You seem to believe that people are guilty until we have evidence to declare them innocent. According to you, you only have to be patient and wait to see if they would become innocent at the end. Hahahaha. That means you see guilt as the default mode. That is fundamentally wrong. Innocence is the default mode. People are innocent until there is evidence and process to find them guilty. So you wait. You are the person to wait before you move from the default state of innocence and arrive at the customized mode of guilt. I have been shouting myself hoax trying to discipline the minds of people that you cannot declare a person guilty until you have gone the full hug because innocence is the default. Until all the evidence is in, until the process has been exhausted, until all the waiting is done, the person remains innocent. It really offends every civilized mind to see a woman condemned to the execution chambers just because some idiot had an idea or a suspicion and had the temerity to spread such suspicion on the internet. - Hope For Nigeria. LIKE fb/hopefornigeria Page, if U have not done that already. Feel FREE to SHARE! **************** Report any suspicious activity to the law enforcement agency, as that will save lives. SHARE/Tag your friends. Join Nigerias First Facebook Community Page! hopefornigeriaonline facebook/hopeforNigeria
Posted on: Wed, 30 Oct 2013 16:16:31 +0000
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