El-Rufai Sounds Alarm on Judicial Corruption, Urges Legal Community to Reclaim Justice

At the Nigerian Bar Association’s Law Week in Abuja on May 19, 2025, former Kaduna State Governor Nasir El-Rufai delivered a forthright message about the state of Nigeria’s judiciary.

He accused many judges and lawyers of corruption and warned that public trust in the judicial system is rapidly deteriorating.

El-Rufai described the judiciary as “meant to be the bedrock of fairness and order,” but now “under intense scrutiny” due to “delayed justice, procedural inefficiencies, and in some cases, judicial compromise (to put the matter delicately).” He argued that such failings have led to widespread skepticism about the courts’ ability to dispense true justice.

A particular concern for El-Rufai was the misuse of ex parte orders in political disputes. He said, “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.”

He also highlighted a dangerous trend where the judiciary appears beholden to the executive branch. “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,” El-Rufai said.

Closing his remarks, El-Rufai urged legal practitioners to reflect deeply on their roles. “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.”