Nigerian Judiciary

By Wale Adebisi

THE Judiciary is the formulation upon which democracy grows and develops. This is so because the Judiciary is the only organ that deals with the administration and dispensation of justice in any democratic nation. Because of its importance in human society, it behooves on those who are entrusted with the dispensation of justice to be guided by the principle of truth and morality. It is a major feature of democratic system of government; it interprets laws that are made by the legislative branch or those that are made on the authority of the legislature. The existence of a judiciary in a democratic government is justified by the principle of separation of powers which states that person who makes laws should be separated from those who implement those laws while those who implement the laws should be separated from those who interpret them. This principle of good governance is expected to prevent dictatorship and arbitrary rule. This is to enable checks and balances in all the tiers of government.

However, the Judiciary in Nigeria existed in non-democratic government like the military regime or an autocratic civilian regime. What distinguishes Judiciary in a democratic rule from that of non-democratic one is its independence to interpret the provisions of the laws which are made by legislative houses. The Judiciary in Nigeria evolved in the colonial through a gradual constitutional development at the time of independence in 1960. The judiciary was consolidated in its present form with a mixture of English Common Law, Sharia Law and Customary Law.

A constitution based on the Parliamentary System was introduced in 1960, when Nigeria formally became an independent state. It was amended in 1963 when Nigeria attained the republican status. Democratic rule was aborted with the military intervention in 1966, which marked the beginning of and end to judicial independence. The military suspended the constitution but allowed the Judiciary and existing laws to continue to exist. Laws were made with decrees at the federal level and edicts at the state level. The independence of the Judiciary was not protected as litigations were decided according to the language of the military Junta’s decrees and edicts. This was confirmed in the midnight court injunction granted on the 1993 June 12 presidential election. Since the start of the Fourth Republic in 1999, the judiciary had been struggling to restore its image in order to justify their relevance and importance in the new democratic order. This was not as easy as other negative tendencies emerged.

It is a plain truth that, Nigeria’s courts of justice have varying operational difficulties, ranging from inadequate infrastructure, insufficient of judicial and non-judicial personnel, debilitating delay in deciding and determination of civil, criminal and electoral cases. The judiciary is also beset by serious ethical problems, including an increasingly nepotistic mode of appointments and promotions of judges. These factors have hindered the adequate functionality of the judiciary undoubtedly, the judiciary in Nigeria has manifested inability to contribute to the development in contemporary democratic dispensation through perpetrating electoral malpractices of corruption, making a lot of people to belong without genuinely following the due process of going to tribunal to pursue their electoral victory, false court declaration leading to violence which often kills democracy.

However, the image of the Judiciary in Nigeria today is that of a institution where any things goes, with cash and carry judgment. A lot of people have been denied justice openly especially civil and political cases. For instance, the 2003 elections under the President Olusegun Obasanjo administration witnessed the worst election rigging and manipulation of justices in the courts. The elections were allegedly rigged throughout the federation with do-or-die style of the then president of the country. The politicians kill democracy and the Judiciary buries it. Perversion of justice with huge money, miscarriages of justice to favour the government in power makes the electorates to lose total confidence in the temple of justice in Nigeria.

Despite, the countless of open perversions, corruption and judgment purchase, Ogbeni Rauf Aregbesola won his case at the Federal Court of Appeal in a long and protracted legal battle to become the second progressive governor of the State of Osun, which put the state back to progressive governance with developmental ideology on November 27, 2010.

The eight-year rule of Ogbeni Rauf Aregbesola ushered in communal peace and harmony, prosperity, sustainable development in infrastructure, agriculture and food security, detailed security system, functional education, health services, youth empowerment, social security and investment in human capital development and finally changing the face of Osun from the lower level of ladder to greater heights in state ranking in Nigeria.

The completion of the eight years’ dual tenure of Ogbeni Rauf Aregbesola under the platform of the All Progressives Congress, which saw him legitimately hand over the baton of progressive governance of the state to Mr. Adegboyega Oyetola reinforced the hegemony of continuity of progressive government of development in the state. This is worthy of celebration because the dividends of democracy are put at the door steps of the electorates in the state.

This day, Nov 27th 2020, marks the 10th year of an interrupted progressive government, which needs to be sustained for purpose of development and growth.

Within the shenanigan of Nigerian judiciary, the stolen and captured mandate of the party was recovered after, a vigorous and protracted political and legal battle at the Election Petitions Tribunal and Court of Appeal in Ibadan.

Nevertheless, the role of the Judiciary in the dispensation of justice made it possible for Osun to be the state in Nigeria that both the Federal Government and some states are copying its programmes and developmental agenda.

Finally, the role of the judiciary as defined in the 1999 Constitution, and other governing acts and laws, is very critical to the survival of democracy and attainment of its purpose in Nigeria. How the Judiciary functions, as well as how the various stakeholders in a democratic empowerment appropriate their intervention and roles in the polity are equally key indicators of the whether they are health-givers or killers of democracy.

Comrade Wale Adebisi

Director, Comrade Ola Oni Centre for Social Research, State of Osun.

Donald Inwalomeh

TO say that Nigerian Correctional Centres are congested is an understatement. This is an undisputable fact; and there are many identified factors responsible for the congestion of the correctional facilities. Among the yet-to-be-addressed factors is the slow pace of justice delivery in the country.

About 80% of the inmates in all the correctional centres across the country are on the awaiting trial list. Some of them are never taken to court again after their first appearance. The awaiting trial inmates continue to stay in overcrowded prisons for years, far more than the period they would have served if they had been tried and convicted. They live in overcrowded and degrading conditions, ravaged by diseases and hunger and psychologically ruined.

The judicial system is to blame for the continuous congestion of correctional facilities, due to slow pace of justice delivery in Nigeria. The correctional service officials have times without number been alerting the authority on the congestion.

Correctional Centres’ officials make monthly updates to the Attorney-General’s Office, both at the state and federal levels, on the condition of the facilities, but the situation has not been addressed over the years. The officials worked under pressure to ensure that the facilities are not congested; sometimes they had to transport the inmates to various courts with their money on daily basis.

Judges and magistrates should try to visit correctional centres regularly in a bid to decongest the facilities. Judges and magistrates should also conduct monthly inspection of all police stations and other detention facilities in Nigeria.

Section 34 of the Administration of Criminal Justice Act, 2015 requires chief judges of the Federal High Courts, Federal Capital Territory High Court and State High Courts to assign judges and chief magistrates to conduct monthly visitation and inspection of all police stations and other detention facilities in all the states of the federation and the FCT.

The purpose of this practice direction is to carry into effect and ensure compliance with the overriding objective of the Administration of Criminal Justice Act, 2015 as expressed in section 1(1) of that Act for:

Ensuring efficiency and speed in the case management of criminal trials and dispensation of justice, protecting the interests and fundamental human rights of defendants, victims, witnesses and society; particularly the right to fair hearing, and ensuring active participation of all parties to focus on matters that are genuinely in issue for trial, thereby reducing delays and expense at trials.

However, the newly enacted Nigeria Police Act, 2020 has imposed a duty on all chief magistrates and judges to conduct monthly visitation and inspection of all police stations and other detention facilities within their territorial jurisdiction other than correctional centres.

The law holds that during a visit, the magistrate may call for and inspect the record of arrests, direct the arraignment of the suspect and where bail has been refused, grant bail to any suspect, where appropriate, if the offence for which the suspect is held is within the jurisdiction of the magistrate.

It is left for the judiciary to activate and implement the provisions of the law in order to end the incessant arrest and prolonged detention of the Nigerian people without any further delay.

We must blame the menace of correctional centres congestion on the nature of the Criminal Justice System in Nigeria, despite the fact that there is limited funding. Criminal justice system encompasses all the paraphernalia of the justice system in Nigeria; ranging from police, courts, correctional centres and other law enforcement agencies. Investigations take weeks or months to conclude and when a matter is concluded on investigation and brought to court for trial, if charges are not filed against them in a court of competent jurisdiction, there will be delay.

The other factor is the slow pace of justice dispensation in the country which is attributable to long and, sometimes, mischievous adjournment of cases which has led to inconclusiveness of most cases, thereby abandoning the inmates in correctional centres, inadequate funding of the judiciary, slow investigation process by the police. Unfortunately, due to the inherent lapses in the system, the correctional centres’ system which is supposed to be reformatory has eventually turned punitive, thereby defeating the true essence of sending convicts to prisons. The implication of this reversed system of prison administration is that the inmates of our correctional centres come out more criminally minded than they were before conviction.

Also, the constitutional duties of the chief judges and magistrates to visit prisons should be consistently complied with. This power vested in the Chief Judges to visit and release inmates with offences or those that have overspent their prison terms and are still there would help to drastically decongest the prisons.

Inwalomhe Donald writes via [email protected]

OBSERVATION: Judiciary And Nigeria’s Democratic Process

ISSUES/POLICY: Judiciary And Congestion Of Correctional Facilities