Nigeria’s judiciary corruption-ridden, better in military era –Oby Ezekwesili

Former education minister, Dr. (Mrs) Oby Ezekwesili, on Tuesday rebuked the nation’s judiciary, saying it has become a laughing stock and its current crop of justices fell below their counterparts in the military era who upheld the sanctity of the law.

Ezekwesili said that the judiciary during the military regime was far better than today’s who she claimed have sold out the country to highest-bidding politicians. “We once had an unimpeachable judiciary …… even in the days of military rule in this country,” Ezekwesili wrote on X on Tuesday.

“Does Nigeria still have a judiciary? Or are you talking of a group of people who have willingly sold out the country to ignoble politicians and desecrated the judicial system that we once knew?”

Ezekwesili said that persons in her age bracket witnessed a period when judges could not be bribed and would dish out fair verdicts not caring whose ox is gored.

“Our generation once knew judges and justices who were totally incorruptible and would never have gladly suffered any of these hewers of wood and drawers of water the political class that are hell bent on destroying our country,” the former minister wrote.

Ezekwesili said she could no longer ascertain if Nigeria still had a judiciary with the magnitude of corrupt practices left unchecked among the judges.

Her words echoed the farewell remarks of a retired Justice Mr Adamu Dattijo in October 2023 who admonished his colleagues still in active service to shun corruption, as that was the only way to regain the public’s trust.

“There must be a rethink and a hard reset. If the people we have sworn to defend have lost confidence, there is a problem that must be addressed,” Dattijo quoted Adebola Adefope-Okojie as saying in May 2023 during her retirement party.