Jungle Justice: A Peak of Failure of Humanity (Published)
The state of anarchy is deemed as a state of lawlessness or a situation where the state machinery is not functioning following the laws of the state. In such a state, anything goes, people tend to put their selfish interest over and above that of the state. Human beings are the major character in any given state, the fact that human beings are inherently selfish or modify as being self-centred implies that there should be in any given society a code of conduct to guide the activities of human beings in the society. These codes of conduct cover all foreseeable aspects of human endeavours and equally contain the sanctions that will be meted on anyone who breaches the provisions of the code. There are certain factors in human society which suggest that human beings cannot at all time without overt strict checks and balances follow the codes as provided. Thus, human beings, though not all at a time, may likely contravene the codes provided. When the contravention occurs, the state machinery has to take appropriate measures to sanction the contravener. However, it is observed that the members of the public do not always give the state the room to take the appropriate measures as provided by the law. The members of the public take the laws unto their hands and accord punishment following their taste against the alleged offender. That is done despite the eternal law of humanity, which states that everyone is innocent until proven guilty by a competent court of law. The argument is that the conducts of the public tend to show how humanely depraved society has turned out to be. To this end, this paper discusses the issues of jungle justice in view of it being the peak of failure of humanity; with penchant interest in Nigeria as an entity.
Keywords: Sanctions, anarchy, humanity, jungle justice, state machinery