Thoughts on Judicial Integrity in Nigeria

Charles Omole/

In my view, our imperfect Constitution has remained so, partly due to Judicial activism of revisionist judges. Courts should be throwing back to the Legislators unclear areas of the Constitution, for democratic change by the people.

Court should not make laws by stretching interpretation. If a Constitution is full of mischiefs and Lacunas (as ours is), the court should not take on the job of fixing it in a democracy. That is for the people thru their elected legislatures.

Activism can tempt judges to give to mere opinion the cloak of judicial certitude. It can stretch the fabric of fact, inference and case law to the point where there are gaps large enough for the unscrupulous or the incompetent to exploit.

Everybody runs to courts every time there is an unclear legal position based on bad drafting. Courts should be sending them back to NA (National Assembly) to fix their own mess

Nigerian courts now regularly contradict themselves; give senseless orders, assign incredible Bail conditions and make mockery of Equitable Jurisprudence. It is now a strain on the eyes and senses to see semblance of Judicial Independence. There are definitely many individual excellent and honest judges; but the reputation of the collective institution of the judiciary is more debatable.

There is certainly need for greater Judicial Discipline in Nigeria to rescue the soul of this esteemed institution from further decline. This is not just about this current government. Many of the egregious verdicts of our courts were given under the PDP.

We are still living under the weight of these illogical precedents. So this malady transcends political parties. Political interference in our Judiciary is historical in nature. Many can still remember the interesting verdicts on the 1979 elections.

But the scale of the problem is a lot bigger now. How do we sanitise the Judiciary? That will be dealt with through another Thread. But change will take many years and this must start with the caliber of candidates appointed in the first place. The change starts now from the bottom.

*Dr Omole shared this article on Twitter via @DrCOmole.

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