By Lillian Okenwa


“A couple of years ago, the Supreme Court of Nigeria upheld the death sentence passed on a man for stealing crayfish. The contention was that he was armed when caught stealing the crayfish. Why he went into crayfish theft is one story that may never be known.”

“In Nigeria, the scale of economic inequality has reached extreme levels, and it finds expression in the daily struggles of the majority of the population in the face of accumulation of obscene amounts of wealth by a small number of individuals. While more than 112 million people were living in poverty in 2010, the richest 4 Nigerian men will take 42 years to spend all of their wealth at 1 million per day…

“Poverty in Nigeria is particularly outrageous because it has been growing in the context of an expanding economy where the benefits have been reaped by a minority of people, and have bypassed the majority of the population… Poverty and inequality in Nigeria are not due to lack of resources, but to the ill-use, misallocation, and misappropriation of such resources. At the root, there is a culture of corruption and rent-seeking combined with a political elite out of touch with the daily struggles of average Nigerians…

“The tax system is largely regressive: the burden of taxation mostly falls on poorer companies and individuals. On one side, big multinationals receive questionable tax waivers and tax holidays and utilise loopholes in tax laws to shift huge profits generated in the country to low tax jurisdictions. In some cases, these tax waivers have been captured by the economic and political elite and used expressly to garner political patronage. It has been estimated that every year Nigeria loses $2.9 billion of potential revenues to questionable tax incentives. This is equal to about 13 three times the country’s total health budget in 2015…” In this 2017 report titled: “Inequality in Nigeria: Exploring the drivers”, Oxfam captures the Nigerian situation.

This grim report is in addition to a justice system skewed in favour of the rich. The result? Distrust of the state, and poverty that has sown violence. And more results? Overflowing prisons or correctional centres as they are now called in Nigeria. A couple of years ago, the Supreme Court of Nigeria upheld a judgment challenging the death sentence passed on a man for stealing crayfish. The contention was that he was armed when caught stealing the crayfish. Why he went into crayfish theft is one story that may never be known. Last year, two teenagers who had been forgotten in prison for stealing eye drops to save their father who was going blind finally regained freedom. But for the intervention of Tope Temokun Chambers that secured their release, they would have been among the statistics of awaiting trial. Thankfully they have since reunited with their sick father who is now blind at Ikole in Ekiti State.

Not long ago, an Indian male minor from a poor family, who became a thief in order to buy food and medicine for his mother, was given ration, cloth, and other essentials by a local court and allowed to walk free. While passing the ‘unique’ verdict, the judge said that he was giving the boy a chance to improve. Narendra Rao confessed to his crime before the court and said that he decided to steal things as his mother was sick and they had no food. “Police caught me as I was running from the crime spot after stealing. Locals gathered in the area to beat me up. I was thrashed by them and then the police took me to jail. Later when I was produced in court, the judge understood my condition and realized why I got involved in stealing. My mother was sick and we had no food. I wanted to feed her.”

And while spaghetti and noodles thieves are being jailed in Nigeria, the Italian Supreme Court of Cassation rejected a conviction held against a poor man for stealing food, citing the Italian legal doctrine ‘Ad impossibilia nemo tenetur’ (‘No one is expected to do the impossible’). Drawing comparisons to Les Misérables, it was a historic ruling that demonstrated the court’s empathy and understanding of the underlying social conditions that prompted the theft in the first place. Poverty and homelessness in Italy are high at the moment, and with little economic growth, the future looks bleak.

Back in 2011, wrote Livia Hengel in The Culture Trip, “Roman Ostriakov, a homeless man from Ukraine living in Genova, was convicted for theft after he stole cheese and sausages amounting to €4 from a supermarket. A customer had seen Ostriakov put two pieces of cheese and a packet of sausages in his pocket and only pay for breadsticks at the cashier. He was subsequently sentenced to six months in jail and a €100 fine in 2015. The case went through three rulings in court before it was rejected in May 2016 in a historic ruling citing that the ‘right to survival prevails over property.’ It cited the importance of maintaining a shared humanity and that no one should be allowed to starve in a civilized society

“It should be noted that the poverty rate in Italy, 6.1% in 2015, is at a 10-year high and that the country faces high levels of unemployment, low wages, and economic stagnation. There are believed to be over 50,000 homeless people living in the country, the majority of the men who lost their job due to a divorce, and a slight majority of immigrants versus Italians (60% vs 40%). Homelessness in Europe as a whole has increased by about 45% since the economic crisis in 2008, but the number has tripled in Italy alone. There are a number of canteens in the major cities such as Rome and Milan, but there is little hope for the reintegration of homeless people into society if the economy does not pick up soon

“Aware of the broader conditions under which Ostriakov stole the food, the court decreed it was not a crime. ‘The condition of the defendant and the circumstances in which the seizure of merchandise took place prove that he took possession of that small amount of food in the face of an immediate and essential need for nourishment, acting therefore in a state of necessity,’ wrote the court.”

A large part of this report was obtained lol from the article, “In Italy, Food Theft Is Not A Crime If You’re Poor And Hungry” published by The Culture Trip on https://theculturetrip.com/europe/italy/articles/in-italy-food-theft-is-not-a-crime-if-youre-poor-and-hungry/


This article was first published by Law & Society Magazine.

Okenwa    is a Lawyer and Editor -in-Chief of Law & Society Magazine.