The Nigerian Judiciary is in a bad shape. This is not surprising, since the Judiciary is also a part of our terribly malfunctioning system.

To identify where to start the reform of the Nigerian society from, we must return to the mantra the late former Justice of the Supreme Court, Anthony Aniagolu, always trumpeted: “To reform Nigeria, first reform the Judiciary and the Police”.

Perhaps in line with this, an electoral reform panel headed by Muhammadu Uwais, a retired Chief Justice of Nigeria, CAN, recommended that the National Judicial Council, NJC, the regulatory body of the Nigerian judicial system, should be empowered to appoint the Chairman and Board of the Independent National Electoral Commission, INEC, which supervises the processes by which political leadership emerges in Nigeria.

Quite obviously, the leadership of the Judiciary as currently constituted, does not have the confidence of most Nigerians due to the poor handling of the sector from the regime of former CJN Ibrahim Tanko Mohammed to the incumbent, CJN Kayode Ariwoola. The handling of election cases, including the 2023 presidential and many state election petitions, largely reduced the judiciary to a laughingstock.

An outstanding case in point was the three-man Appeal Court headed by Justice Oluwayemisi Williams-Dawodu, holden in Jos, which sacked Governor Caleb Mutfwang and 23 other PDP lawmakers over alleged irregularities in the processes of their emergence as candidates. These were clearly pre-election matters which the election tribunals were forbidden by law from enquiring into, in deciding their cases.

This cockeyed verdict prompted speculations that the Appeal Court panel set up by the President of the Court of Appeal, Monica Dongban-Mensem, who is from Plateau State, delivered a “political” verdict. The Supreme Court later restored Gov. Mutfwang’s mandate.

Also, conflicting verdicts by courts of coordinate jurisdictions have dogged many political cases. These include the Rivers State 2024 budget passed by the Hon. Edison Ehie-led State House of Assembly. While Justice James Omotosho of the Federal High Court, Abuja, invalidated it, another Federal High Court Judge, J. O. Abdulmalik, ordered the maintenance of the status quo, which essentially countermanded his colleague.

We have seen the same clash of courts of competent jurisdictions in the hot potato Kano Emirateship crisis. In all these cases, the CJN and NJC only barked but did not bite.

Some of our judges are perceived as being deeply “in bed” with politicians and are seriously politically-exposed. Many of them are also seen as being beneficiaries of political patronages who need to use their positions to pay back. Some have also been accused of corruptly influencing the appointment of their sons, daughters and relations into the Bench at all levels to continue the legacy of rot.

We need an independent reform panel headed by a respected senior jurist,  to beat a new path for our Judiciary.