• Lawyers kick, caution against branding entire system as corrupt
• Judiciary is biggest threat not INEC, says IPAC ex-chairman, Ameh

The United States (U.S.) Department of State and former President Olusegun Obasanjo have separately issued damning indictments of the judiciary, exposing how corruption, inefficiency, and political interference have impeded justice delivery in Africa’s largest democracy.

In its 2024 Human Rights Practices Report released on August 12, the U.S. catalogued troubling evidence of Nigeria’s declining rule of law to include arbitrary detentions, enforced disappearances, corruption in high-profile prosecutions, and weak enforcement of labour and child protection laws.

Days later, Obasanjo, while launching his new book, “Nigeria: Past and Future,” accused judges of turning Nigerian courts into “courts of corruption rather than courts of justice,” lamenting what he described as the “precipitous fall” of judicial integrity in the Fourth Republic.

Both interventions converge on the same disturbing theme: Nigeria’s justice system is deeply compromised, with implications that extend far beyond the courtroom into politics, human rights, and national stability.

According to Obasanjo, corruption within the Bench has not only discredited the courts but has also imperilled Nigeria’s democracy. “The reputation of the Nigerian judiciary has steadily gone down from the four eras up till today. The rapidity of the precipitous fall, particularly in the Fourth Republic, is lamentable,” he wrote in his new book.

He recounted an incident that underscored the rot: “I went to a state in the North about 10 years after I left public office. Next to the government guest house was a line of six duplexes. The governor pointed to the buildings and stated that they belonged to a judge who put them up from the money he made from being the chairman of election tribunals.”

For Obasanjo, the commercialisation of justice is not just a moral failure but a direct threat to peace and stability. Beyond the judiciary, Obasanjo took direct aim at the electoral umpire. He accused the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC), under its current Chairman, Prof. Mahmood Yakubu, of systematically undermining the integrity of elections since 2015.

The U.S. Department of State’s report mirrors Obasanjo’s concerns, albeit from an external vantage point. It was observed that Nigeria’s judiciary is plagued by systemic inefficiencies, which result in detainees being held for years without trial, sometimes longer than the maximum sentence for their alleged offences. The causes, the report noted, range from court backlogs, inadequate numbers of judges, and lost case files to entrenched corruption and political interference.

Meanwhile, faulting Obasanjo and the U.S. positions, a legal practitioner, Ahmed Tafa, described the blanket indictment of Nigeria’s judges as “an aberration,” stressing that it is unfair to generalise judges as being compromised.

Tafa said that judges, like every other individual, possess different traits, and many can be vouched for as persons of integrity. He further stressed that allegations of misconduct against judges should be reported through appropriate legal channels.

In another reaction, Akeem Akponmade, a lawyer, admitted that corruption exists within the judiciary but cautioned against branding the entire system as corrupt.

However, former National Chairman of the Inter-Party Advisory Council (IPAC), Peter Ameh, has echoed Obasanjo’s concerns on corruption in Nigeria’s justice system, insisting that the judiciary, and not the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC), is the gravest danger to the country’s democracy.

Ameh, who spoke in Abuja yesterday, said Nigerians often focus narrowly on electoral reforms without acknowledging that a compromised judiciary undermines every democratic effort.

“The judiciary is actually the problem. When the electoral process is undermined by the electoral commission, the judiciary is supposed to be the last hope of the common man. But today, instead of interpreting the Constitution and the Electoral Act to protect democracy, the courts are tilting in favour of those in power,” he added.

He, however, faulted the Supreme Court for failing to hear a suit filed by Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) governors seeking an interpretation of the President’s powers to suspend elected governors and lawmakers.

“For over six months, the case has been kept in the cooler. The Supreme Court knows that the President has no such power, but it feels uncomfortable delivering a judgment that might go against him. The apex court is waiting for the suspension to lapse so that the case becomes irrelevant,” he said.

Ameh urged Nigerians to heed Obasanjo’s warning with seriousness.