Dr Sam Amadi, Director of the Abuja School of Social and Political Thoughts, has observed that there is an increasing capture of the judicial institution by the political elite in the country, News.ng reports.
Dr Amadi made this known during an interview on Arise Television on Wednesday.
According to him, judges who are supposed to be fighting for their independence are busy fraternizing with the political elite.
He claimed that, due to the level of closeness between judges and the political class, their relatives are getting government contracts.
He said, “So there’s an increasing capture of the judicial institution. And the judges themselves seem to delight in dependence and independence. They’re not fighting back to say, We want to be independent.
“They are enjoying the benefits of commingling and smoothing with political officeholders because it gives them opportunity. Their children are doing contracts. There have been clear allegations, credible in some cases, of these judges, some of them, becoming part of contractors through proxies.
“So I think that the biggest challenge for this democracy is that the institution is being captured. And it’s important for not just democracy, for stability. Look, roll up to election.
“You are giving judges things that suggest to a portion that judges are captured. And then they’re not going to go through the procedure. They will reject the arbitration of the institutions of the state and resort to self-help.”
He described the situation as a democratic crisis.
On the quest for the independence of judges, he explained that judges can be independent, but if the judicial institution is hindered from being independent, it will weaken the capacity of judges to dispense justice fairly, the former chairman of the National Electricity Regulatory Commission (NERC) noted.
“It’s a national security crisis. It’s a democracy crisis. And I see a resolve, a recklessness, especially with the F.C.T. minister in terms of what the judges are doing, to not care about institutional integrity.
“Look, judges can be independent based on the behaviour of individuals. But as an institution of independence, that creates opportunity for the heroism and courage of individual judges. When you so much reduce that space for institutional independence, you are weakening the capacity of these judges to render fair decisions.
“And you are strengthening public distrust of judicial system and increasing resort to self-help and anarchy. So I think that these guys who are doing this should sit back and say, are we building the future? Are we building chaos, anarchy, and conflict by creating the sense that we have captured the state?,” he added.
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