Amazon has listed a Nigerian-themed book as its number one bestseller in global politics after its author was arrested on the orders of a controversial lawyer and businessman.
Dele Farotimi’s ‘Nigeria and Its Criminal Justice System’ surged to the first position on Amazon on Thursday morning.
The demand for Farotimi’s book on global platforms like Amazon followed a similar rush to bookstores across Nigeria, where citizens were curious to learn its content. This followed Farotimi’s arrest on the orders of Afe Babalola, a 93-year-old senior Nigerian lawyer who corruption allegations have long dogged.
Nigerian-themed rarely make Amazon’s bestselling chart, but Farotimi’s book beat globally-acclaimed works like ‘Why Nations Fail’, according to a check on Thursday.
Dele Farotimi, a human rights lawyer based in the country’s commercial hub Lagos, used the book, published in July 2024, to criticise corruption in the Nigerian judiciary and specifically namechecked Afe Babalola as one of the top offenders.
Babalola “compromised the Supreme Court and the remaining semblance of integrity it might have had,” Farotimi wrote while narrating a case in which the nonagenarian lawyer approached “the Supreme Court and got that court to swim in the sewer of corruption and shameful self-abnegation.”
The book buttressed a longstanding public suspicion that Babalola was among those befouling the Nigerian judicial by corrupting judges with cash and material bribes to influence judges from lower courts to the Supreme Court.
The book saw low sales following its publication until Farotimi was detained by armed policemen in Lagos on Tuesday morning and subsequently transported to Ado Ekiti, about 300 kilometres northeast of the nation’s commercial capital, where Babalola is best known as the largest employer of labour.
A judge remanded Farotimi in prison following an arraignment on Wednesday morning in Ekiti, pending a bail hearing scheduled for December 10. The police said the book “was likely to cause fear and alarm to the public or disturb the public peace,” according to the charge sheet.
Babalola has long faced public criticism as one of the senior lawyers notorious for their ability to influence court judgements across the country, eroding public trust in the Nigerian judiciary. He has often denied the allegations, but some judges have lamented how some lawyers were known for their ability to undermine the judicial system by buying judgements.
Farotimi’s detention has sparked public outrage, with Nigerians demanding his release while raining invective against Babalola, who is widely adjudged the most influential private citizen in Ekiti State.
In March, the United Nations Office on Drugs and Crimes (UNODC) said corruption is prevalent in the Nigerian judiciary.
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