NIGERIANS have accused judicial officers of being puppets in the hands of politicians and powerful people in society, criticising them for allegedly making themselves cheap before the nation’s incompetent leaders.

In an X post on Thursday morning, human rights activist and law lecturer, Prof Chidi Odinkalu, wrote: “Am I the only one disappointed that we are still waiting on@FederalHigh to issue an order restraining the US….? No Omotoso? No Lifu? Where is @GovWike when #Nigeria needs him….?!”

The post, which is a sarcastic comment on United States President Donald Trump’s threat to stop all aid to Nigeria and enter the nation to root out terrorists if leaders fail to act, attracted several negative comments about an arm of government popularly known as ‘ the last hope of the common man.’

Several posts supported Prof Odinkalu’s mockery of judicial orders in Nigeria, which are sometimes contradictory and send wrong signals about judges presiding over the affairs of the nation’s third arm of government.

An X user, @SirOdigie, wrote: “Exactly! Maybe they’re still ‘consulting their conscience’ before issuing the order. Don’t worry, once it’s too late to matter, they’ll rush out an ex parte injunction at midnight — signed, sealed, and backdated for national interest!”

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Another X user, @ChrisAdorn, wrote: “The notorious judges alleged to have given controversial judgments. Even Wike was showing restraint when he appeared on Channels TV. We will wait to see if they will issue the Order.”

Another X user, @DumebiDonald, noted: “They can’t dare. There properties from stolen public funds are there. If you notice all top government officers have been avoiding the Trump issue by either applying caution while talking about it or totally aviod it.”

A 2024 survey conducted and published by the National Bureau of Statistics (NBS), in collaboration with the United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime (UNODC), shows that judiciary topped the list as the most corrupt institution in the country in 2023.

The report said among all types of public officials captured in the survey (with an average of N31,000 bribe paid in 2023), the largest cash bribes were paid to judges and magistrates, followed by customs or immigration service officers (N17,800) and members of the armed forces (N16,600).  The report shows that judicial officials had actually become puppets not just in the hands of politicians but also powerful and rich members of the society.

“Nigerians’ confidence in the government’s anti-corruption effort has been declining over time and across regions. While in 2019, more than half of all citizens thought that the government was effective in fighting corruption, in 2023, the share declined to less than a third of all citizens,” the report said.

“The downward trend in the citizens confidence is observable across the entire country, with all six zones recording reductions of more than 10 percentage points between 2019 and 2023 in terms of the share of citizens who thought the government was effective in fighting corruption.”

On November 1, Chief Judge of Ebonyi State, Justice Elvis Ngene, bemoaned the persistence of corruption within Nigeria’s justice delivery system, warning that corruption posed ‘a grave threat’ to fair hearing and access to justice.

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“Public perception of corruption among judicial and court officers is a discouraging factor that keeps some people away from the courts, preferring to resolve their conflicts elsewhere,” he said.”There is no denying the fact that integrity issues do exist within the justice system in Nigeria,” he added.

Earlier, the sixth female justice of the Supreme Court, Justice Amina Augie, had said in 2024 that judicial corruption should not be limited to judges and magistrates.

“When we are talking of the judiciary, everybody looks at the judges, they look at the judicial officers, they forget the staff that run the whole place, that the lawyers have to file processes in court, that everything has to be done before we would then come to sit in court. So, they blame the court, they blame the judges, they blame everybody without looking at the staff that have to run the place to put things together before those files are put there,” she said, while calling for holistic reforms.

Divergent voices

Reacting to this, a lawyer, Mr Chuks Esimonye, noted that though there was ‘humongous’ corruption in the judiciary, there were still disciplined judicial officers.

“Look, there is humongous corruption in the judiciary, and many judges and magiatrates may be puppets in the hands of powerful people, as everyone says. But I have seen some of them with impeccable character,” he said. “Do not put everyone in the same class.”

However, a human rights activist, Dr Charles Ebonye, disagreed, citing several contradictory orders as evidence of rot in the system.

“Many of them are just puppets in the hands of politicians and powerful individuals in Nigeria. I know people, mostly politicians, who do not lose court cases. They also get favourable judgments even when they are doing illegal things. So, don’t let anyone deceive you, there are more bad eggs there than good ones,” he added.