Judges Are The Biggest Bribe-Takers In Nigeria: Wow! What A Country!

 By Olu Fasan

IT is official! The judiciary is the most corrupt institution in Nigeria; judges are the biggest takers of bribes in this country. A few years ago, I wrote a piece titled “Lord, give Nigeria bold and incorruptible judges”, (Vanguard, April 25, 2019). When I said that Nigerian judges are fantastically corrupt, it seemed as if I was just making an assertion, as if I was just expressing an opinion as a columnist.

But now, we have an official confirmation. According to a recent survey conducted and published by the National Bureau of Statistics, NBS, in collaboration with the United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime, UNODC, Nigeria’s public officials received N721billion cash bribes in 2023, and judges topped the list of the recipients.

The 160-page report titled “Corruption in Nigeria: Patterns and Trends”, published this month, makes for sobering reading indeed. Those in denial about how utterly broken and rotten things are in Nigeria must now realise the incongruency of their position with the reality. What hope is there for a country when its judges are the biggest takers of bribes and receivers of kickbacks? According to the United Nations Convention Against Corruption, UNCAC, “judges who cannot be corrupted inspire and compel corrupt-free conduct in a society as a whole”. The converse is also true: Judges who can be corrupted induce and foster corrupt conduct in a society at large. 

Ironically, Nigeria is the second most religious and second most prayerful nation in the world, according to a Pew Research Centre survey. But what is God’s injunction to judges, in the Bible and in the Quran? In Deuteronomy 16:19, God told judges: “Thou shall not pervert justice; thou shalt not show partiality; and thou shall not accept a bribe.” Why? Well, “for a bribe blinds the eyes of the wise, and perverts the words of the righteous.” Sadly, that injunction is more honoured in the breach than in the observance by judges in Nigeria.

Truth be told, there’s a prevalent perversion of justice in this country, with right called wrong and wrong called right, precisely because Nigerian judges are extremely corrupt. In their book entitled Nigeria: What Everyone Needs to Know, John Campbell and Matthew Page say that Nigeria has “a judiciary notorious for accepting bribes and awarding favourable rulings to the highest bidder.” Campbell is a former US ambassador to Nigeria, and obviously knew, from intelligence, the truth about Nigerian judges; that truth is now formally confirmed. But how can any Nigerian or any foreigner have confidence in the ruling of a Nigerian judge when everyone knows that it was probably influenced by bribery or political pressure? 

This is not a trivial matter. Judges are next to God in terms of their powers: they can order the incarceration or execution of a person; they can decide who is a legislator or a governor; they can set a country in any direction. Recently, the Supreme Court changed the Constitution in the local government autonomy case, and everybody said whatever the court says is final. Yet, last year, the respected senior lawyer, Dr Olisa Agbakoba, SAN, a former president of the Nigerian Bar Association, NBA, told Channels TV: “I’ve lost confidence in what the courts have been doing lately,” adding that “facts and law no longer form the basis of Supreme Court decisions.” 

But if facts and law don’t influence the decisions of judges, if, instead, bribery and political pressure determine their rulings, what is the future of a country suffused with such judges? It’s a dreadful future indeed! 

According to the damning NBS/UNODC report, only about two per cent of Nigerians have contact with judges. So, how come judges are the biggest receivers of bribes? Well, the answer, the report says, is that “large bribes are generally paid to influence important decisions, for example, court decisions.” In other words, because their decisions have substantial consequential effects, personal, political or economic, judges demand large bribes and those benefitting from those decisions are more than willing to pay the bribes. 

Put simply, judges put a high monetary premium on their “services” and award favourable rulings to the highest bidder. It is utterly depressing, and I shed tears for Nigeria.

It is worth noting that the report only covers administrative corruption through bribery. It does not cover grand or political corruption through the large-scale transfer of public funds for private interests by political officeholders such as governors and ministers. While grand or political corruption involves looting of public treasury, administrative corruption involves taking bribes from fellow citizens to render a public service. 

That’s why it is shocking that over N721billion in cash bribes were paid by citizens to public officials in 2023. As the report notes, “public officials continue to be blatant about bribe requests.” Alarmingly, according to the report, “around 60 per cent of public sector job applicants in Nigeria were hired as a result of nepotism, bribery or both in 2023.” Little wonder Nigeria has such a corrupt and incompetent civil service, as recruitment is largely driven by corruption and nepotism. 

Last week, a national  newspaper published a piece titled “Anti-Corruption War: How far can Olukoyede go?” (Vanguard, July 20, 2024). Well, Ola Olukoyede, chairman of the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission, EFCC, knows in his heart of hearts that he’s fighting a losing battle, as I wrote in a column titled, “Toothless bulldog: Tinubu’s EFCC can’t fight corruption” (Vanguard, January 25, 2024). Truth is, the fish rots from the head down, and Olukoyede lacks the courage and the independence to do the needful. 

Think about it. If EFCC were to act, without fear or favour, on all its high-profile cases, several members of Tinubu’s cabinet and government would be facing corruption trials today. But Olukoyede will never, can never, touch any of the president’s ministers or party functionaries against his wishes and say-so. Tell me, then, what anti-corruption war is Olukoyede fighting? He’s fobbing Nigerians off!

The NBS/UNODC report shows unequivocally that Nigeria is a country where the rich and the powerful can get away with anything. In America, former President Donald Trump was convicted of 35 felony charges and President Joe Biden’s son, Hunter Biden, was convicted of a three-count gun offence. 

Yet, heavens did not fall. In 2020, while delivering the Supreme Court ruling against then President Trump in his tax returns case, Chief Justice John Roberts said: “No one, not even the President, is categorically above the law.” That’s not the case in Nigeria, where judges have normalised corrupt behaviour. 

What a country!

*Dr. Fasan, Visiting Fellow at the London School of Economics and Political Science (LSE), is a commentator on public issues