Nigeria’s Judiciary and Its Corruption Malady – THISDAYLIVE

By Mobolaji Sanusi

“An impartial judiciary is essential to the administration of justice and the preservation of liberty.”
— James Madison (1751-1836)

Democracy with no credible judiciary is an invite to a Hobbesian state of nature, the place life is brutish, nasty, poor, and brief. Like all human creations, state establishments established by human reasoning should not infallible and are inclined to typically avoidable foibles. But when such imperfections turn into abysmally alarming, each right-thinking citizen ought to be deeply perturbed.

That is the shameful state of the Bench in Nigeria in the present day, which is regularly acknowledged by very senior stakeholders within the authorized occupation and past. Conflict, which is a necessary a part of societal coexistence, is changing into more and more tough to resolve pretty via the instrumentality of the courts.

This should have knowledgeable the nation’s uninspiring, dismal rating of one hundred and twentieth out of 143 international locations within the 2025 World Justice Project Rule of Law Index. Given the uncovered entrenched corruption on the Bench and within the authorized occupation typically, coupled with unchecked political interference and insufficient funding, the score would possibly even be worse by the point the 2026 rating is launched.

Expectedly, the court docket is a mirrored image of the society we stay in, and the depth of its rot raises a pertinent and elementary query: Is there any side of Nigerian life that’s proof against the illness of corruption? Yours sincerely acknowledge that there are nonetheless honourable judges and different Nigerians who stay above board, however they’re so few in quantity that their feeble voices of cause have been drowned by the tumultuous horde of corrupt plunderers of the general public until.

From the times of yore until the current, stakeholders inside the authorized system and observers outdoors the noble occupation have been involved and have constantly spoken out in opposition to the rot in that more and more desecrated, quick diminishing occupation within the nation. Yet, the abysmal state of affairs within the judiciary and authorized occupation isn’t bettering, and it continues to hassle respected individuals within the polity.

It is due to this fact unsurprising that retired Justice Amina Adamu Augie has turn into the newest voice in that regard. She is in a greater place to know the extent of endemic corruption within the authorized occupation as a former trainer of legal professionals and a retired Justice of the nation’s apex court docket. She won’t be utterly insulated from the rot like different justices/judges and legal professionals, however she has raised a justifiable alarm on the just lately held fortieth anniversary of the Nigerian Law School Class of 1986, the place she decried high-level corruption inside Nigeria’s judiciary and authorized occupation.

She declared that corruption within the authorized occupation, wherever it exists — “on the Bench, at the Bar, or in the Registry — poisons everything by turning the one place where a citizen should find impartiality into one more market stall.”

That damning description of the judiciary as a “market stall” shouldn’t be taken flippantly, due to the importance of the judiciary and the authorized occupation in direction of resolving recurring societal disputes, each human and institutional.

Until now, some Justices of the apex court docket have curiously deployed their valedictory periods to reveal the rot within the judiciary and the authorized occupation as an entire. Justice Musa Dattijo Muhammad, who retired because the second most senior Justice of the Supreme Court and Deputy Chairperson of the National Judicial Council, a while earlier famous the “witheringly scornful and monstrously critical” public notion of the judiciary, stemming from “court officials and judges easily being bribed by litigants to obviate delays and/or obtain favourable judgments.”

Similarly, Justice Adefope-Okojie, JCA, on the level of her exit, requested what qualifies any particular person to bear the exalted title of ‘Honourable Justice’ if to not administer justice with out concern or favour. She bemoaned the rising degeneration of honourable traits in members of the Bench and the Bar.

Justice Ejembi Eko, at his valedictory from the Supreme Court in 2022, expressed issues in regards to the tepid dealing with of corruption points on the Bench by the NJC when he stated: “With deference to the NJC, the punishment usually falls short of public expectation… When the punishment for an outstandingly bad and outrageous conduct is far too lenient, it encourages impunity and/or a repeat by others of such errant or atrocious misconduct.”
So far, the hassle of the NJC on this regard is figure in progress.

Afam Osigwe, the quick previous Nigerian Bar Association President, additionally earlier this yr, in the course of the National Association of Seadogs-organised Ralph Obiora Lecture that held in Enugu State, corroborated the rapacious corruption ravaging particularly the Bench when he stated: “The judiciary, once revered as the last hope of the common man, is increasingly perceived as a marketplace where justice is auctioned to the highest bidder.”

Osigwe relied on a 2024 survey by the UNODC and the National Bureau of Statistics which revealed that roughly N721 billion in money bribes was obtained by public officers in 2023, with judges named as prime recipients. An ICPC survey additionally reportedly confirmed that N9.4 billion in bribes handed via the justice sector, with legal professionals and litigants recognized as main bribe-givers between 2018 and 2020. This is alarmingly condemnable.

Even the revered quintessential jurist of our time, Justice Kayode Eso, who handed on in November 2012, noticed the rot in his e-book The Judiciary: The Shield of Justice, thus: “Corruption in the judiciary is a major problem that needs to be addressed. It is a problem that has been affecting the integrity and effectiveness of the judicial system… We need to take urgent steps to address corruption in the judiciary.”

Again, the query arises: are the mandatory steps being taken to deal with this downside when the judiciary sadly depends completely on the manager department for its survival? It made for shameful optics when, not too way back, the Chief Judge of the nation’s Federal High Court, Honourable Justice John Terhemba Tsoho, led fellow judges cap-in-hand to beg the FCT Minister, Nyesom Wike, for landed property and different perquisites.

In my Yoruba tradition, there’s a saying that “Ti enu ba je, oju a ti” — He who pays the piper dictates the tune. Following from this, it may be inferred that will probably be tough for the Bench to say a whole NO to the calls for of their benefactor known as Wike or anybody within the government arm every time the necessity arises. Too dangerous!

No surprise it’s broadly believed that corruption within the judiciary will subsist for so long as we now have a judiciary that “…must beg the executive for a courtroom roof, vehicles, judges’ entitlements and financial autonomy for the courts” — all of which ought to ordinarily be constitutional perquisites of workplace for Justices and Judges.

The 2027 normal elections are quick approaching and ours is a rustic the place no politician contesting for positions accedes to defeat on the polls. Election losers in our clime all the time method the Election Petition Tribunal on the flimsiest of excuses to contest their loss. Do we depend on “compromisable or tainted judicial officers” to maneuver our democracy ahead? This query beneath the prevailing circumstance is best left unanswered. Too dangerous!

The nation should get its act proper if we really need a judiciary that’s, in phrases and deeds, largely an neutral referee, not a participant within the recreation. What we now have now’s largely a courtroom the place the calm and impartial administration of the legislation yields to political pursuits and pecuniary inducements; a whole reflection of the occasions all of us stay in and shamelessly adore for parochial sentiments. On this be aware, l relaxation my case for this week.

Ipoola Omisore Relocates ‘Ile-Ife Greats’ To Lagos

“A room without books is like a body without a soul.”
– Marcus Tallius Cicero (January 3, 106 BC—December 7, 43 BC).

The date is October 30, 2026. On that day, Lagos will probably be agog with a momentous occasion meant to have a good time recorded respected sons and daughters of the Yoruba cradle from the Source in Ile-Ife, Osun State.

The convener of the occasion is none aside from the elder statesman, completed promoting skilled, educationist, creator, and two-term former member of the House of Assembly of the Centre of Excellence, Hon. Ahmed Ipoola Omisore, who authored the e-book titled: “Great Ifes in History,” which will probably be launched on that day.

The Royal Father of the Day is His Imperial Majesty, Oba Babatunde Enitan Ogunwusi, CFR, whereas the Principal Guest of Honour is His Excellency, Dr. Kadri Obafemi Hamzat—the incoming governor of Lagos state come May 29,2027, insha Allah. The Father-of-the-Day is Chief Oyekunle Alex-Duduyemi, whereas the e-book reviewer is the completed journalist, President Emeritus of the Nigerian Guild of Editors and Provost of the Nigerian Institute of Journalism, Mr. Gbenga Adefaye.

Definitely, subsequent Friday guarantees to be an attention-grabbing day on the Lagos Airport Hotel, Ikeja, venue for this promising occasion by Honourable Omisore.

Trust me, yours sincerely will probably be current on the event to have a good time the day with invited company…..Congratulations upfront Honourable Omisore…

•Sanusi, former MD/CEO of Lagos State Signage and Advertisement Agency, is at the moment Managing Partner at AMS RELIABLE SOLICITORS. (WhatsApp solely:07011117777).