Plea Bargaining: A Recreation of George Orwell’s <i>Animal Farm</i> in Nigeria

Abstract

Animal Farm is an allegorical novel by George Orwell in which he depicted social injustice precipitated by the insincerity of leadership and the betrayal of the people by their leaders which has made the novel relevant as the experience depicted therein “seamlessly steps into the realities of everyday life” (Achebe 2012) in contemporary societies all over the world. This paper presents a comparative analysis of the Animal Farm experience and the Nigerian experience hinged on plea bargaining. The Nigerian citizens advocated for democracy, fought for and won the entrenchment of democracy and the political leaders turned themselves into pigs of who are of special breed. The political leaders just like the pigs in Animal Farm are entitled to the best of everything while the others toil and labour for them to enjoy. In addition, they are exonerated of embezzlement of public fund through plea bargaining while an ordinary citizen is jailed for street trading. The argument in this paper is that economic and violent crimes have the same impact on the society and so should be treated the same way. If every Nigerian who is accused of or even guilty of any crime cannot make use of plea bargaining then it should be expunged from the judicial system of the country while stiffer penalties be meted out to economic and financial criminals. The conclusion is that if the practice of plea bargaining is not checked, it could erode the credibility of the country’s justice system.