Nigeria, March 30 -- In Nigeria, you can be sentenced to death for defending yourself against an assailant. Forget all that you've read to the contrary. If your life is threatened by an armed herdsman, run for cover. Or simply allow the vagabond to slice your throat. You're better dead and classified as a victim than to retaliate and be condemned to death for fighting for your life.

Nigeria's Supreme Court recently affirmed the judgement of the lower courts in respect of a case of culpable homicide against Citizen Sunday Jackson, who must now be sent to the hangman for defending himself when he was attacked with a knife by a herdsman feeding his cattle on Jackson's farm.

Jackson was only 20 years old and an expectant father when the inc...