National president of Zenith Environmental and Social Protection Network (ZESPRONET), George Ukaegbu (SAN), has stressed the need to reform the country’s judicial system.
Ukaegbu told journalists on the sidelines of the organisation’s 2026 dinner and award night in Port Harcourt, the Rivers State capital that “it is not only the country’s judicial system that needs to be reformed, the other systems need to be attended to as well.”
He continued, “The judicial system and every other segment of our system needs reformation. The judicial system is not isolated. It is part of the Nigerian system and there seems to have been so much degradation in our value system. So, that has impacted every segment of our society.”
The ZESPRONET national president stated that it is not clear for everybody to see that the Nigerian judiciary is no longer the last hope of the common man.
“To that extent, I completely agree with the points raised by the keynote speaker regarding the change that has occured.
He took us down memory lane of what judiciary used to be in the past and what it is presently.
“Of course, it is there for everybody to see that we can no longer proudly say like we used to say that judiciary is the last hope of the common man,” Ukaegbu said.
In his keynote speech titled: “As The Court Pleases; the Role of the Judiciary In Safeguarding or Truncating Democracy In Nigeria”, a legal practitioner, Obum Nwoye, said in a constitutional democracy, Judiciary occupies structural position as the third arm of government, functioning as a natural arbiter between citizens as well as between the state and individuals.
Obum said, “In a constitutional democracy modelled on the doctrines of separation of power, the Judiciary occupies a structural position as the third arm of government, functioning as a natural arbiter between citizens as well as between the state and individuals.
“The constitutional mandate of the Nigerian judiciary basically encompasses or to summarise other four democratic imperatives. The Judiciary functions as the guardian of constitutional supremacy and the rule of law.
“The Judiciary functions as institutional protector of fundamental human rights guaranteed under chapter four of the Constitution. The Judiciary functions as the institutional umpire of federalism.”
