The rule of law is universally recognised as a critical instrument in upholding equality and preventing power misuse. According to Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia, the rule of law is a political ideal that all citizens and institutions within a country, state, or community are accountable to the same laws, including lawmakers and leaders. It is sometimes stated simply as “no one is above the law.” 

In Nigeria, the rule of law is a liberty-centred constitutional concept that stipulates that everything must be done, in accordance with the law. It encapsulates such ideals as government according to the law, equality, before the law and independence, and autonomy of the judiciary, among others. 

It is a mechanism, process, institution, or practice that supports the equality of all citizens before the law. It protects the citizens from arbitrary forms of government, and arbitrary use of power. Arbitrariness is only a characteristic form of despotic government, authoritarianism or totalitarianism. All these forms of despotic governments depict all forms of rule in which the entity at the apex of the power structure who may be a king, a junta, or a political elite is capable of acting without regard to due process or extant law but pandering to the whims and caprices of those in the helm of affairs. 

Ideas about the rule of law as a political and legal thought had been mooted since at least the fourth century BCE when Aristotle distinguished “the rule of law” from “that of any individual.” This is just as in the 18th century Montesquieu, the French political philosopher, elaborated the doctrine of the rule of law that contrasted the legitimate authority of monarchs with the caprice of despots. The rule of law has since influenced Western liberal thought. 

Accordingly, the rule of law becomes the bedrock of democracy and effective governance, providing a structure that ensures power is wielded with fairness, consistency, and accountability.