Former vice president, Atiku Abubakar has claimed that the judiciary is the biggest threat to Nigeria’s democracy.
He addressed a panel discussion on the topic of bolstering democracy in Nigeria on Monday in Abuja, organized by the National Peace Committee (NPC), the Centre for Leadership, Strategy and Development (Centre LSD), the Centre for Democracy and Development (CDD), the Westminster Foundation for Democracy (WFD), the Peering Advocacy and Advancement Centre in Africa (PAACA), and the African Centre for Leadership, Strategy and Development (Centre LSD), and the National Peace Committee (NPC).
The politician was one of the speakers in the professor’s paper titled “Party Politics and Political Integrity: The Role of Political Parties and Opposition in Democracy.” Bayo Olukoshi.
He claims that the reforms that were implemented to combat judicial recklessness have failed.
“That must change. The same judiciary that upheld party candidates’ primacy and their candidates’ candidates now condemns and encourages the destruction of parties by a select few, and in some cases, a single person with a personal agenda.
In choosing our leaders, the judiciary appears to have largely replaced the voters. The judiciary’s involvement in electoral disputes was intended to support voters’ choices.
“But the judiciary, even at the highest levels, twists and contorts to find technicalities to deny voters their choice rather than affirming the voters’ choices.
The judiciary and its leadership do not always survive intact when democracy fails, according to someone who knows enough about history to realize.
Strong independent justices were a major factor in the judiciary’s survival of our First Republic democracy after its collapse or demise. It wasn’t for want of trying.
“However, as the corruption of every facet of our society deepened, the judiciary soon followed. And it is, perhaps, the most dangerous because there is nowhere else for the aggrieved to turn to,” he said.
He claimed that no one could control the other branches of government’s excesses.
Our parties and our democracy are unlikely to survive if the corruption in our judiciary continues without having a significant impact on the perpetrators. ”
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He argued that Nigeria’s democracy is at a crossroads.
“Put simply, it is at the risk of eroding completely. And it is not caused by one single person or one single administration.
Many of us have warned over the years that this might happen if we lose our vigilance and fail to take corrective steps to defend and advance our democracy, he said.
He claimed that no other leader had as much of an impact on promoting democracy as he does.
I doubt that there are many senior political figures of the present who have spoken out and done more to support democratic governance than I do, at the risk of sounding modest. I introduced some actions to our courts that resulted in landmark judicial decisions that upheld democratic principles and practices, in addition to public statements and presentations.
Source: Channels TV
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