Thread by @SERAPNigeria

Some excerpts from @SERAPNigeria report Go home and sin no more: Corrupt judges escaping from justice in Nigeria, published 2016
A country can still do well with bad laws but it cannot do well with bad judges.

This is because if the judges are upright, they can mitigate the injustice, inhumanness created by people who made bad laws. But when judges are corrupt, even with good laws, development, justice cannot thrive.
By: Late Justice Akinola Aguda

Without a judiciary that is independent, the concept of rule of law becomes a mockery. Indeed, an independent, competent, fair, impartial and accountable judiciary is indispensable for the fight against corruption and effective enforcement of human rights.

Judges worldwide, including in Nigeria are charged with the interpretation and application of laws for the common good. The judiciary plays an important role in the fight against corruption because they are constitutionally empowered to adjudicate all cases of corruption.

Section 6 of the 1999 Constitution (as amended) vests in the Courts and Tribunals established by law the powers to adjudicate between the State and the accused, and to determine the culpability or otherwise of anyone accused of corruption, money laundering, other related crimes.

Many judges are men and women of knowledge, professionalism and integrity who can never be compromised in their pursuit of justice and fairness.

But corruption is prevalent in Nigeria with deleterious effects on economic and social development and the justice system, including the judiciary. There are other judges that abuse their positions to enrich themselves, their families by rendering justice to the ‘highest bidders'

Several years of judicial corruption combined with pervasive impunity of corrupt judges in Nigeria have continued to make it very difficult to address the problem and improve ethical conduct of judicial officers.

Judicial corruption is antithetical not only to human rights and good governance but it also directly undermines the ability of government to satisfactorily combat corruption.

Judicial corruption includes any inappropriate influence on the impartiality of the judicial process by any actor within the court system.

In Nigeria, judicial corruption can take the form of embezzlement of funds allocated to the judiciary or bribes, biased participation in trials and judgements as a result of the politicization of the judiciary, party loyalties of judges or any type of judicial patronage.

Realizing that the mode of appointing judges was not tight enough to block appointment of corrupt lawyers into the bench, the National Judicial Council in 2014 modified the process by introducing more stringent requirements and rigorous process for appointment of judges.

The new instrument on appointment of judges, the 2014 Revised National Judicial Council Guidelines and Procedural Rules for the Appointment of Judicial Officers of all Superior Courts of Record, makes it mandatory for vacancies in the judiciary for post of judges to be advertised

It is clear that corrupt judges cannot meaningfully contribute to the fight against corruption. A corrupt judiciary denies both victims of corruption and those accused of corruption access to an independent, impartial and fair adjudication process.

A corrupt judge is more harmful to the society than a man who runs amok with a dagger in a crowded street. The latter can be restrained physically. But the former deliberately destroys the moral foundation of society and causes incalculable distress to individuals.

Nigeria has an obligation under international law as well as under its own Constitution to ensure that its judiciary is empowered and able to function optimally to do justice to all manner of persons, regardless of their political, social, or economic status.

Judges themselves upon appointment swear to an oath to do justice without fear or favour, ill-will or affection.

Nigeria has developed Code of Conduct for Judicial Officers and established institutions such as the NJC, the Federal Judicial Service Commission, the State Judicial Service Commission and the Judicial Service Commission Abuja promoting ethics and discipline in the judiciary.

The NJC for example has the power to sanction erring judges in accordance with its powers stated in Paragraph 21 of Part One of the Third Schedule to the 1999 Constitution. It has indeed sanctioned quite a number of judges found to have run foul of the Code of Conduct.