Senior Advocate of Nigeria (SAN) Jibrin Okutepa has lambasted the Nigerian judiciary for its apparent acquiescence to executive overreach, warning that the arm of government meant to be a bastion of independence is instead behaving like an “undignified househelp.”
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In a blistering social media critique that has sparked widespread debate among legal circles, Okutepa, in an impassioned thread on X (formerly Twitter) posted earlier today, called for the Bar and Bench to reclaim their constitutional mandate by prioritizing “substantial justice” over technicalities that breed insecurity and injustice for the masses.
“You cannot fight for the independence of an entity that does not want independence. For me, Nigerian judges and judiciary can only be independent when the judges and judiciary decide to be independent. You can’t cry more than the bereaved,” Okutepa wrote, expressing dismay at what he sees as the judiciary’s comfort with its diminished status. He argued that this self-imposed subservience allows politicians and other power brokers, who “should fear the judiciary,” to treat it with disdain, leaving ordinary Nigerians to bear the brunt of systemic failures.
Okutepa, a vocal legal commentator with a reputation for advocating truth and equity, urged the legal profession to “retrace its steps and return to its glorious root of being light that can overshadow the darkness of corruption and injustice.” He highlighted chronic issues plaguing the courts, including “slow and snail processes,” blatant disregard for legitimate court orders, and the near-impossibility of securing swift justice in non-election-related disputes. “It is difficult getting quick justice in non-elections related disputes in our courts today,” he lamented, adding that such inefficiencies erode public trust and fuel societal strife.
Drawing on constitutional foundations, the SAN referenced Section 6 of the 1999 Constitution, which establishes the judiciary’s role in adjudication to deliver justice to all within Nigeria’s borders. Yet, he contended, the profession, comprising the Bar (lawyers) and Bench (judges), has veered off course. Decisions and opinions, he charged, often sideline “substantial justice” in favor of hyper-technical rulings, such as dismissing cases on jurisdictional grounds without probing merits. “We have become jurisdictional experts, with technical victories to the prejudice of fairness and equity,” Okutepa stated, recounting a colleague’s claim that “justice is relative” as a moment that “feared” him. “Justice is what is fair and just with undiluted purity. Anything than that is unjust and cannot be justice.”
The post paints a grim picture of a system where evidence is discarded on “archaic and anachronistic” technicalities, injustices are ignored “even when [they] stare us in the face,” and even enforced judgments face fresh “jurisdictional obstacles” erected by lawyers themselves. Okutepa warned that this culture not only perpetuates inequity but also sows the seeds of broader insecurity. “In any society where people don’t get justice from the institutions that are created to give justice, there is always strife and insecurity.”
His clarion call is for unity. “The Bar and Bench must come together to fashion out how best we can attain good justice in Nigeria.” He advocated hearing cases on their merits rather than “throwing [them] out at infancy,” emphasizing that while jurisdiction is the “blood and life wire of litigations,” it must not become “an instrument of injustice.”
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