The year 2021 ended on a frantic note in Nigeria, with a raft of developments in the judiciary designed to lock in strategic leverage for various entrenched interests in Nigeria's ruling classes. Senior judges and politicians were handing out judicial office to their spouses and children as end-of-year hampers, with one Senator having his young daughter sworn in as a judge and a former governor swearing in one of his serving wives as a High Court judge. This is known as judicial capture, as judges now have the casting vote in Nigeria's elections and ambitious politicians have decided they must own the judges. The Supreme Court is the most powerful court in Nigeria, presided over by the Chief Justice of Nigeria (CJN), who is a totem to judicial capture and heads the judiciary; the Supreme Court; the National Judicial Council (NJC); the Federal Judicial Service Commission (FJSC); the Board of the National Judicial Institute (NJI); and the Legal Practitioners Privileges Committee (LPPC). This has had a devastating effect on Nigeria's judiciary, with the consequences for the country being incalculable.
Index to Nigerian Newspapers
