Former Kaduna State Governor Nasir El-Rufai has openly accused the Nigerian judiciary of corruption and inefficiency, warning that these issues have severely undermined public trust in the justice system.
Speaking at the Nigerian Bar Association’s Law Week event in Abuja, El-Rufai said, “In parallel, our judiciary—meant to be the bedrock of fairness and order—is under intense scrutiny. Concerns about delayed justice, procedural inefficiencies, and in some cases, judicial compromise (to put the matter delicately), erode public confidence.”
He expressed particular concern about the use of ex parte orders in political cases, which he described as a form of manipulation by some legal practitioners. “The rise in forum shopping, the weaponisation of ex parte orders in political matters, and the growing perception that justice is for sale and available only to the rich and the powerful would cause the perceptive observer to conclude that what Nigerian courts do is the administration of law and not the administration of justice,” El-Rufai stated.
The former governor also criticized the judiciary’s relationship with the executive branch, suggesting a lack of independence. “In Nigeria, there is a seemingly unbridgeable gulf between law and justice. Not only is justice wanting, but the law that is administered seems to be according to the wishes of the Executive,” he said.
El-Rufai urged members of the legal profession to engage in self-reflection and renew their commitment to impartial justice. “The demand on you, as practitioners in the Temple of Justice, is a sober introspection as you contemplate whether indeed Justitia is blind and whether she holds the scales of justice in fine balance.”
