Retired Supreme Court justice says corruption has turned courts into a 'market stall'

A retired justice of the Supreme Court, Amina Adamu Augie, has said corruption in the legal profession turns the courtroom into something closer to a market stall, where a citizen should instead find fairness.

She spoke at the 40th anniversary reunion of the Nigerian Law School Class of 1986, according to an opinion article in ThisDay. Augie, a former justice of the country's highest court, said the damage is not limited to judges. It also reaches lawyers and registry staff, she said.

Her words matter to ordinary Nigerians because the courts are where land disputes, election results, criminal cases and debts are settled. If a case can be bought, the person without money or connections loses.

Others have raised the same alarm

Augie is not the first senior figure to speak out. Justice Musa Dattijo Muhammad, who retired as the second most senior justice of the Supreme Court and deputy chair of the National Judicial Council (NJC), said the public now holds the courts in low regard. He blamed this on officials and judges who can be bribed to speed up a case or win a favourable ruling.

Justice Ejembi Eko, who left the Supreme Court in 2022, questioned how the NJC handles corruption complaints. He said punishments often fall short of what the public expects, and that leniency encourages others to misbehave.

Afam Osigwe, the immediate past president of the Nigerian Bar Association (NBA), said earlier this year that the courts are increasingly seen as a place where justice goes to the highest bidder. He spoke at a lecture in Enugu organised by the National Association of Seadogs.

Osigwe pointed to a 2024 survey by the United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime (UNODC) and the National Bureau of Statistics (NBS). It found that public officials received about ₦721 billion in cash bribes in 2023, with judges among the top recipients. He also cited an ICPC survey that put bribes in the justice sector at ₦9.4 billion between 2018 and 2020, with lawyers and litigants named as the main givers.

The article also noted that Nigeria placed 120th out of 143 countries in the 2025 World Justice Project Rule of Law Index.

Money and the courts

The writer argued that the judiciary's dependence on the executive for funding weakens its independence. He cited an occasion when the Chief Judge of the Federal High Court, Justice John Terhemba Tsoho, led judges to ask the FCT Minister, Nyesom Wike, for land and other benefits.

With the 2027 general elections approaching, the article asked whether election petition tribunals can be trusted to rule fairly. Nigerian politicians rarely accept defeat at the polls, and losing candidates often head to court.

The piece did not say what, if anything, the NJC or the Chief Justice of Nigeria plans to do in response to Augie's remarks.