In many parts of Africa, justice is not merely delayed, it is priced. For the poor, accessing law enforcement often begins not with the facts of a case, but with an unlawful demand for money.

Even where a citizen is clearly the victim of a crime, the police may insist on “facilitation fees” before taking the most basic steps to investigate.

This insistence persists despite full knowledge that the victim lacks the means to pay.

Desperate for redress, victims are forced to scrape together money from uncertain and often humiliating sources, simply to have their complaints acknowledged. Yet payment rarely guarantees justice.

Instead, it opens the door to a cycle of endless excuses, further extortion, and deliberate delays. Eventually, financial exhaustion, no legal resolution bring the case to an end.

The victim gives up, not because the truth is unclear, but because poverty has made perseverance impossible.

The consequences are grave. Perpetrators walk free, emboldened by a system that signals impunity rather than accountability.

They return to society unpunished, often repeating the same crimes against new, unsuspecting victims.

In this context, lawlessness is not accidental; it is cultivated. When justice becomes transactional, criminality thrives.

This reality raises uncomfortable but necessary questions. Whom does the law truly serve?

Who are the police mandated to protect—the citizen or the highest payer?

And at what point did the enforcement of the law become conditional on one’s ability to pay bribes rather than on the merits of a case?

A justice system that excludes the poor is not merely flawed; it is dangerous.

It erodes public trust, normalises corruption, and grants criminals the confidence to operate without fear.

Until access to justice is de-linked from money, the promise of the rule of law will remain hollow, and the cycle of crime and impunity will continue unchecked.

-ELAINE ALEXIS ATTOH