Global tech and retail giant 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 Thursday morning, after trending starting Wednesday afternoon, Peoples Gazette checks showed.
The demand for Mr Farotimi’s on global platforms like Amazon followed a similar rush to bookstores across Nigeria, where citizens were curious to learn its content. The global interest followed Mr 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, and Mr Farotimi’s book beat globally-acclaimed works like ‘Why Nations Fail’.
Mr Farotimi, a retired lawyer based in Lagos, used the book to criticize corruption in the Nigerian judiciary and specifically name checked Mr Babalola as one of the top offenders.
Mr Babalola “compromised the Supreme Court and the remaining semblance of integrity it might have had,” Mr 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, published in July 2024, buttressed a longstanding public suspicion that Mr 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 Mr Farotimi was seized 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 Mr Babalola is best known as the largest employer of labour.
Following his initial arraignment on Wednesday morning in Ekiti, a judge remanded Mr Farotimi in custody pending a bail hearing on 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 seen by The Gazette.
Mr 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. He was not specifically mentioned in the allegations by retired Justice Dattijo Muhammad.
The detention has sparked public outrage, with Nigerians demanding Mr Farotimi’s release while raining invective against Mr Babalola, who is widely adjudged the most influential private citizen in Ekiti State.