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210
Student @ Lagos State University
WE, THE LEARNED
<p><strong><del>(Crime)</del></strong></p><p>You know I think I’ve gotten tired of how you all try to cage me,</p><p>Banging the gavel on my actions like as if it’s my fault he gave in.</p><p>I simply whispered.</p><p>He did it.</p><p>But then you personify me the bad guy…you get my hands and handcuff me to the table while I glare at you insolently because we both know “this can’t be the last of me.”</p><p><em><br/></em></p><p><em><br/></em></p><p><strong><em>(The law)</em></strong></p><p>“Ius est ars boni et aequi.”</p><p>I repeat those words to myself every day…i say it until I believe it,</p><p>Until I’m convinced that’s who I am.</p><p>I tell them it’s okay…you can decide how to codify me, better written so that we won’t forget.</p><p>I try to be dynamic and remind all of my precedents.</p><p>It’s a game, don’t you see.</p><p>It’s a race to be interpreted right.</p><p>Who I think I am is not what he bellows back when they plead not guilty;</p><p>he has rubbed his greasy fingers with enough cash—he’s too slippery to be caught.</p><p>I now realize that I am not what's in the books, but what the judge had for breakfast (or who paid for it).</p><p>So i sit back defeated and muse:</p><p>The problem was never her who began, it was because they who claimed to interpret me sat and broke bread with her.</p><p><em><br/></em></p><p><em><br/></em></p><p><strong><em>(We, the learned)</em></strong></p><p>It’s a shame they all believe we’re learned.</p><p>They call us by our fancy titles, and we beam back,</p><p>it’s deserved.</p><p>The cramming. The endless nights.</p><p>The prison uniform, tinted black and white.</p><p>The colour transfers into how they think we see the world.</p><p><br/></p><p>Some call us liars; we scorn them.</p><p>Truth hits too close to home.</p><p>They expect us to be the most intelligent in every room,</p><p>so we carry our shoulders high...</p><p>fools we really are.</p><p><br/></p><p>We make you believe that justice is blind,</p><p>indifferent to status or wealth.</p><p>At least that’s what A. V. Dicey sang</p><p>about the Rule of Law.</p><p>The first notes of our Constitution are simple:</p><p>“<em>The Constitution is supreme above every other law.”</em></p><p>But even that is a lie.</p><p>We are superior.</p><p>What we didn’t tell you is this:</p><p>A murderer can walk free if the police tamper with the crime scene, </p><p>A drug-running kidnapper can be acquitted if the police pulled an illegal stop.</p><p><br/></p><p>What we didn’t say was that</p><p>we aren’t taught the law.</p><p>We are taught how to manipulate it.</p>
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