There is no doubt that the Nigerian judiciary is plagued by a myriad of problems ranging from institutional to personnel problems, poor facilities to inadequate financial provisions and procedural to constitutional problems.
However, the financial institutions are exempted from different problems faced in this country. The aids are more dangerous than the perpetrators. Most of the atrocities committed by the politicians in regards to embezzlement and corruption are aided by our judicial and financial institutions with the help of their experts or the professionals.
In the last two and a half decades however, the Nigerian judiciary has been plagued by problems and intractable challenges: troubles and challenges brought on by post-1975 military regimes and by the legislative and executive branches of government. Other contributing, insidious factors include: (a) the declining standard of legal education; (b) the entrenched social ills that continue to eat away at the nation’s moral fibres; (c) the changing nature of Nigerian society which, in some cases, no longer values the rule of law, ethics and morality; (d) the belief that anyone and anything can be bought, sold or compromised, including the law and those who interpret the law; and (e) the single-minded pursuit of money and material gain to the exclusion of noble ideas and ideals.
In any modern society, the judiciary and the financial institution play pivotal roles most especially in embezzlement of public funds and the level of what is good and decent and godly about humanity. effectiveness and efficiency of these institutions determine the growth and development of such country. If both institutions fail to discharge or perform as designed by the constitution, then, the poor will be the sufferer. And if the judiciary and the. Financial institutions are rotten, then the society has no hope for accountability and probity. The Nigerian has been moribund for about two decades, and the financial institutions and judiciary are now comfortably neglected their roles and functions. What hope is there for Nigeria?
What this means is that one can hardly tell the judiciary apart from the other two branches of government. Today, as most can attest to, the Nigerian judiciary has become a chamber of corruption, inefficiency and depravities. The Nigeria police whose one of their functions is to take arrest as designed by the criminal justice system is another plague within the judicial institution. Innocents are being arrested, tortured and detained without trial, meanwhile, thieves and political parasites are allowed to dine and wine freely without being cautioned. The entire court system, from the customary and sharia courts through the state and federal court system and up to the apex court, the system has become, for the most part, buyable and sellable. It is a mess. The Nigerian judiciary is in a messy state!
Some have argued that the level of injustice within the Nigerian judiciary, in some cases, is way more than the level of injustice on the Nigerian streets. Case files are often stolen or lost or sold. Cases get postponed again and again and again and again. Investigating officers, court clerks and even judges may tamper with glaring evidence or the deserved justice. And indeed, the accused may get locked up for years that far exceed the number of years they would have spent if convicted.
One could spend hours cataloguing what is wrong with the Nigerian judiciary. Even so, it needs pointing out that most of what is wrong with the Nigerian justice system, in addition of earlier indictments, came about mostly because of the deficiencies within the Nigerian legal system, infrastructures and the residual effects of several decades of pounding and unholy inducement from the executive and the political class. In all of these, one cannot separate the judiciary from other sections of the Nigerian state and society, a state and society plagued by all manners of excesses, inefficiencies and deficiencies.
The fact is that there are also illegal prisons in Nigeria, dungeons and gallows where political prisoners and 'enemies of government' are routinely held without the knowledge of family members. A place meant for rehabilitation has turned to dungeon! Frankly, no one really knows the number of people who are locked up in Nigeria. Amnesty International asserted that prisons in Nigeria are a 'national scandal', holding thousands of inmates who have not been legally convicted or inmates who have spent years, and even decades, awaiting trials, trials that may never come.
The government, at both the state and national level, along with the judiciary, are to be blamed for this messy state. How do you hold suspects for decades and decades without trial? Why postpone cases again and again and again to the point where there is no justice for the accused, or a sense of closure for the aggrieved? In addition, there are the issues of unsanitary condition and the inhumane treatments around and within the Nigerian prison system. Convicts deserve to be locked up if and when the courts say so, but whatever constitutional rights they are entitled to must still be respected.
Amnesty International report went on to say that 'The judiciary fails to ensure that all inmates are tried within reasonable time; indeed, most inmates wait years for a trial. When inmates are convicted, most courts do not inform them of their right to appeal. Nor does the judiciary guarantee that all suspects are offered legal representation. Few of the courts take the necessary steps to end the use of evidence elicited as a result of torture. In breach of national and international law, the judiciary does not guarantee fair trial standards even in the case of minors.' What system of justice is this, if there is an iota of justice at all?
There is something else: For the most part, the Nigerian judiciary has not been very helpful in resolving most of the electoral disputes in Nigeria. It is common knowledge that some disputed cases take two to three years to resolve. For instance, 'It took 3 years to decide the Ngige/Obi gubernatorial tussle and Emordi senatorial tussle. Yet both governorship and senatorial tenures are 4 years!' In the same vein, it took more than two years to resolve the Buhari–Obasanjo electoral disputes, almost 3 years to resolve Agagu/ Mimiko electoral and all other electoral disputes within the country. Considering this and many other vexing issues, one can only conclude that the Nigerian judiciary has lost its way
The institutional framework of the judiciary is constitutionally prescribed by the Constitution of the Federal republic of Nigeria 1999 (as amended).
Apart from the structure and hierarchy of the courts the Constitution also establishes institutional bodies for regulation of the activities and welfare of people within the country.
The judiciary comprise of judicial officers who are human beings and therefore subject to the vagaries of human nature in its insidious form.
While there are good, intellectually sound and upright judicial officers of impeccable character and integrity in Nigeria, it is sad to say that a sizeable percentage of judicial officers in Nigeria fall below the standard expected of judicial officers in the area of intellectual capability, uprightness, character and integrity and this reflects in the poor quality of judgments delivered by the various courts in Nigeria and the growing problem of conflicting judgments and the attendant confusion it brings in the legal system in Nigeria.
This problem stems mostly from the flawed appointment process of judicial officers and the enthronement of mediocrity over merit, poor training of judicial officers for the task ahead, because the appointment is based on personal consideration not by merit. When shall all these stop? Inadequate facilities to ensure the constant updating of knowledge by judicial officers and the non-synchronization of decided cases in the law reports making it difficult for judicial officers to easily access and decipher the applicable and current legal jurisprudence on particular principles of law.
The issue of corruption by judicial officers which has eaten deep into the fabrics of the judiciary and threatens to erode public confidence in it. No one is above the law, says the rule of law. But in Nigeria, we are not equal before the law. Law is made has become an instrument of oppression in the hands of the rich.
A poor Judge is perhaps the most wasteful indulgence of the community. You can refuse to patronise a merchant who does not carry good stock, but you have no recourse if you are hurled before a Judge, whose mental or moral goods are inferior.
An honest…, able and fearless Judge is the most valuable servant of democracy…"
A corrupt Judge is more harmful to the society than a man who runs amok with a dagger in a crowded street.
The latter can be restrained physically. But a corrupt Judge deliberately destroys the moral foundation of society and causes incalculable distress to individuals through abusing his office while still being referred to as honourable
This problem of corrupt judicial officers is not peculiar to the judiciary but is symptomatic of the wider Nigerian society and the endemic nature of corruption which has crept into every aspect of the daily life of the people and is evident in the public sector where widespread corruption and embezzlement of public funds is common occurrence and is met with little or no penalty or sanction, our so called bankers or the professionals are not left out in this horrible attitudes. where does the transaction takes place ? How do they manage to get the money? All these activities are aided by the professionals.BY Pastor F.E Bamiduro. 08033064005
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