2027: What We Expect From Judiciary – Civil Society Leaders

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LAGOS – Comrade Yinka Folar­in, national presi­dent, Committee for Defence of Human Rights (CDHR), Comrade Isah Abubakar, National President, Northern Youth Council of Nigeria (NYCN), and Chief Chekwas Okorie, pioneer national chairman of All Progressives Grand Alliance (APGA), have urged the judiciary to shun partisan­ship so as to safeguard Nige­ria’s democracy.

They spoke in separate interviews with Sunday In­dependent, where they ex­pressed concerns over the 2027 general elections, warn­ing that the outlook is un­pleasant because the judiciary is perceived in some quarters as a wing of the ruling All Progressives Congress (APC).

According to Folarin, every democracy should have rule of law as a cornerstone as well as bedrock.

“Our democracy is fragile and all stakeholders are ex­pected to guide it. A situation where elections are not won through the ballot but through the courts must be avoided.

“Growing concerns over candidates and political par­ties’ eligibility, and conflict­ing judgments from different courts are threats to the forth­coming general elections.

“Judiciary must be very careful and mustn’t allow de­mocracy to die. We must do everything possible to guide democracy. A situation where judges are perceived to be par­tisan as a result of conflicting judgments is dangerous.

“The National Judicial Council (NJC) must purge itself, awake to its responsi­bility and call erring judges to order.”

Abubakar, on his part, asked the judiciary to con­vince

Nigerians that it’s not an appendage of the ruling party.

“The backbone of any pro­gressive nation is the judicia­ry. Without a judiciary you don’t have a country, you don’t have laws. Laws are made by man, but people are meant to obey them and ensure that they’re fully implemented.”

According to him, Nigeria’s judicial system is becoming so compromised to the extent that people see it as a wing of the All Progressives Congress (APC).

“Virtually all their judg­ments are always against the

opposition political par­ties. With recent occurrences from the federal government where 300% of the salaries of judges were increased, the minister of FCT is building houses for them. So where is the independence of the judi­ciary?

“There should be a system where the judiciary can fund their projects. Unfortunately, the average Nigerian sees the judiciary as being compro­mised and a wing of the ruling political party.

“Because in most cases people have come to believe that probably the political party writes the judgment that some judges read.”

“It’s a bad precedent that President Bola Tinubu is setting. Unfortunately, he is destroying the system that brought him to power.

“The judiciary, just like the Independent National Elec­toral Commission (INEC), are appendages of the ruling political party. There’s noth­ing different between the ju­diciary and the INEC. It’s the ruling party’s position that they take and this is very dangerous for our democra­cy considering the fact that the 2027 election is around the corner.

On his part, Okorie thinks that NJC hasn’t done enough to discipline erring judges.

He said, “Judiciary is ex­pected to be a check on the ex­cesses of both the executive and the legislative arm of governments. And whenever each or any of these arms chose to go against the law, especially as contained in the Constitution and the statute books, it’s the Judiciary that is expected to call them to or­der and where they’re to be sanctioned, they’ll give those sanctions.

“That is why it is generally said that the court is the last hope of the common man. But that’s no longer the case. It’s unfortunate that it’s more prevalent in matters of politics in this country.”

He added, “This particular dispensation under the pres­ent leadership of the Nation­al Judicial Council (NJC), seems to be the weakest NJC we’ve had in recent time. Be­cause judges are being seen to do the unthinkable. And it takes eternity for the NJC to even say anything at all. And sometimes they turn the oth­er face.

“What the Appeal Court said about Justice Lifu in setting aside the judgment he gave against the parties that were listed to be dereg­istered, was enough to make the NJC to convene an emer­gency meeting and sanction that particular judge. But they always have their reasons for looking the other way.

“This same judge, that the Appeal Court said wasn’t fit to sit on the bench, continues to sit on the bench and continues to take position on critical po­litical issues. Look at the one in Kogi State that concerns NDC.

It’s the most ridiculous thing that many Nigerians would never contemplate hap­pening in our country.”