Foreword:
When history recalls the struggles of Nigerian farmers, the name Sunday Jackson may stand as a haunting reminder of how deeply justice, agriculture, and survival intersect in rural Nigeria. Jackson’s story, a farmer condemned to death for defending himself, is not just about law and punishment. It is about a system that has failed to protect the very hands that feed the nation. 
In 2015, on a quiet piece of farmland in Adamawa State, Jackson was attacked by an armed herdsman. Acting in self-defence, he managed to disarm his assailant. He survived, but that act of survival became his undoing. Arrested and prosecuted, he was sentenced to death by hanging; a sentence upheld by the Supreme Court in March 2025. The judgment that he “should have fled instead of fighting back” struck many Nigerians as both morally and legally unsettling.
