Ejiogu E. Amaku
Many African legal students have hardly been properly schooled on Thomas Aquinas’ legal thoughts. Part of the reason is general ignorance of the contribution of Aquinas to the historical development of the legal system. Those, who at all, mention Aquinas in their legal write-ups, simply engage in criticizing his natural law theory without paying a holistic attention to his legal doctrines. With that bias, Aquinas is hardly objectively presented in the legal field. This paper undertakes the challenge of unveiling, to African legal scholars, the rationality of law in the perspectives of the Angelic Doctor. Aquinas classical definition of law, his insistence that law is for the common good backed by a competent authority are strong indications that Aquinas’ legal datum is not simply a walk-over in the packages of legal theories. African countries are veritably governed by constitutions, but it is noteworthy that there is no rule of law in the continent. The dearth of rule of law is unquestionably the brain child of corruption in the black continent. People do to others whatever they wish and whenever they want and go legally unchallenged. Some political ministers loot public properties, kill political opponents with all impunity; judges discharge their legal duties based on financial might and many are involved in corrupt practices with utter disregard of the law. This paper is challenged to critically evaluate the African legal system with the values of Thomistic jurisprudence in order to inculcate the sense of rule of law in the continent.
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