So the former Nigerian oil minister has been acquitted. Quelle surprise. Another well-heeled defendant walks out of a London courtroom, free to resume a life of comfortable obscurity while the British legal establishment pats itself on the back for its incorruptible fairness.
I am positively sickened by the smugness. But let us not misplace our indignation. The real scandal here is not that a politician from a notoriously kleptocratic state has dodged a conviction.
The real scandal is that we in the West continue to believe our judicial system exists in a moral vacuum, untainted by the grubby fingerprints of power and money. This is not justice. This is a staged drama, a piece of theatre designed to reassure the global elite that the old imperial order still functions.
Consider the parallels. The British Empire was built on a foundation of legal fictions: the rule of law was a tool of control, a way to manage colonial subjects while London extracted the wealth. Today, the City of London remains the favoured destination for the proceeds of corruption from the former colonies.
We prosecute the occasional underling, the expendable middleman, but the system itself is never challenged. The verdict is a masterpiece of misdirection. The judge, the barristers, the careful legal language: all of it allows us to feel righteous while the real engines of plunder continue to hum.
The Nigerian people, who were the victims of this grand larceny, are left with nothing but a lesson in cynicism. They see that British justice is for sale, but the price is only affordable for the well-connected. And what of our own moral standing?
We lecture the world on transparency, on anti-corruption, while our courts provide a safe haven for the very worst offenders. The verdict is a victory, but a victory for the elite, for the status quo, for the comfortable delusion that the law is blind. It is a defeat for anyone who believed that justice could actually be done.
So let us not clap too loudly for British justice. It is a fine piece of furniture, polished and gleaming, but the drawers are full of skeletons. And they are rattling louder than ever.
I daresay the only surprise here is that anyone is surprised at all.
