The Human and Environmental Development Agenda (HEDA Resource Centre), has lamented the high level of corruption in Nigeria’s judicial system.
HEDA, a non-governmental organisation, stated this as part of findings contained in the fifth edition of the Leadership Approval Rating (LAR).
The report titled, “Voices for Justice: A Civic Lens on Nigeria’s Judicial System – Documenting Public Experiences, Opinions & Reform Demands,” and unveiled by the Human and Environmental Development Agenda (HEDA Resource Centre), on Tuesday in Lagos.
It said about 65.4 % of the public rate judicial corruption as high or extremely high.
It also said the report showed that only 42.3% believed that court decisions are based on merit while 64% believed that lawyers contribute to judicial corruption.
The Executive Secretary of HEDA, Arigbabu Sulaimon, told journalists present at the event that the report was a nationwide analysis of public perception regarding the Nigerian judiciary and built from the responses of 1,357 participants across all 36 states and the FCT.
“The demographic of those who took part in the survey for the report were fairly balanced with 53.9% male and 46.1% female; 57% of the respondents were aged 18-35, reflecting a strong youth engagement and every Nigerian state had over 30 responses with Yobe State having over 50 responses.
“The findings reveal widespread concerns on judicial accessibility, corruption, political interference and the erosion of human rights protections,” he said.
Sulaimon explained that 80% of participants to the report said they had never interacted with the courts, and only 12.6% rated the courts as highly accessible while 36.5% rated accessibility very low.
He said, “Legal visits to the courts were mostly for documents such as affidavits and agreements as well as for settlement of land and marital disputes and enforcement of rights.
“On the corruption perception index, 49% of court users surveyed admitted to “sorting” court officials while only 29% consider judges impartial.
“55% believe lawyers promote justice while 45% disagree. 62% also felt that judges were not upholding the principle of being “heard and not seen.
“On political influence, “63.4% say political/high profile cases expose judges to corruption while 48.9% said political cases get prioritised causing delay for other matters”.
The report also identified political, financial crimes, land and human rights cases as being most vulnerable to undue influence.
On judicial independence and oversight, HEDA said “only 17% of the participants trust the National Judicial Council (NJC) to discipline erring judges while 70% say they are unaware of the reporting channels for corruption or misconduct”.
It also said “59%, however, agreed that financial autonomy moderately boosts judicial independence”.
On human rights and law enforcement, it said, “60 % of the participants say courts enable police abuse and impose rights-violating bail conditions”.
“Major recommendations made include strict judicial oversight, enforcement of constitutional rights and prose of abusive officers.
“While courts and corruption cases are reported regularly, only about half of the respondents say these stories reach the general public consistently while only 9% of Nigerians say that they actively follow NJC related news.”
Key reform suggested include full judicial autonomy and transparent appointments, better salaries and security for judges, strong anti corruption mechanisms, use of technology for transparency (e.g. live -streams, body cams, et cetera, during court sessions), public awareness and legal education as well as creation of special human rights courts.
