As 71% of Nigerians lack trust in the judiciary

By Ezra Ukanwa – Abuja

Ahead of the 2023 general elections, a fresh survey by Anvarie Tech and ResearcherNG and Bincika Insights has shown that 40% of the Nigerian population does not believe elections are free and fair.

The finding formed part of a survey entitled: “The State of Freedom in Nigeria Re­port To understand Citizens’ perceptions of freedom of expression and trust in pub­lic institutions the results of which were made available to journalists during a me­dia roundtable discussion on Nigerians’ perception of expression and political par­ticipation.

The survey funded by the Washington DC-based National Endowment for De­mocracy sought to find out citizens’ views on Freedom of Expression, Political Par­ticipation, Rule of Law and Corruption with a focus on their trust in independent government institutions.

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According to a report pre­sented by Farida Adamu, Senior Programme Manag­er of ResearcherNG, 71% of Nigerians lack trust in the judiciary, 65% lack trust in anti-corruption agencies, and 40% do not believe elections are free and fair.

“Anvarie Tech and Re­searcherNG and Bincika Insights conducted a survey with 1861 respondents across the 6 geopolitical regions in Nigeria between November 15 and December 10, 2021.

“The response to whether or not the legislature holds the government accountable, a majority of
the respondents 56.8% disagree while 43.2% of respondents agree.

“65.2%, a majority of respondents disagree that government institutions established to tackle
corruption are independent and effective while 34.8% agree that government institutions are
independent and effective”, he added.

The survey on the Rule of Law and Corruption shows: “Citizen perceptions on access to justice indicate a lack of trust in the judicial system as 71.2% of respon­dents disagree that the Judi­cial system is fair and treats everyone equally while only 28.8% agree that the judicial system is fair.

On Freedom of Expression, the survey revealed that across the six geopolitical regions in Nigeria, the survey indicates that perceptions of freedom of speech and the negative implications of exercising freedom of speech are balanced.

“50.4% of respondents agree that citizens are free to criticize the government without fear, while 49.6% disagree with this statement.

“Majority of respondents, 69.3%, agree that Nigerian citizens are free to organize political
groups, while about 30.7% of respondents disagree.”

Vanguard News Nigeria