Former President Olusegun Obasanjo has launched a scathing attack on Nigeria’s judiciary, accusing judges of widespread corruption and warning that the system has become a “court of corruption rather than a court of justice.” These assertions were made in his newly released book, 'Nigeria: Past and Future', published by the Olusegun Obasanjo Presidential Library (OOPL).

Obasanjo lamented what he described as the “steady decline of the judiciary’s integrity,” particularly since the advent of the Fourth Republic. He wrote, “The reputation of the Nigerian judiciary has steadily gone down from the four eras up till today. The rapidity of the precipitous fall, particularly in the Fourth Republic, is lamentable.” The former president cautioned that justice in Nigeria has become commodified, noting that “where ‘justice’ is only available to the highest bidder, despair, anarchy, and violence would substitute justice, order, and hope.” This commodification, he argued, poses dangerous consequences for the nation’s stability.

To illustrate his point, Obasanjo recounted an incident during a visit to a northern state approximately a decade after leaving office. He stated that a governor pointed to six duplexes near a government guest house, claiming they belonged to a judge who built them from proceeds made as chairman of election tribunals.

Beyond the judiciary, Obasanjo also accused the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) chairman, Mahmood Yakubu, of compromising the electoral process since 2015. He alleged that Yakubu had “polluted and grossly undermined” elections, making them a “charade,” and said the INEC boss had usurped the will of the people. Obasanjo wrote, “No matter what the will of the people may be, the Chairman of INEC since after the 2015 election had made his will greater and more important than the will of the people.” He further added, “And worse still is the will of the judges – two out of three, three out of five corruptly overriding the will of millions of voters.”

The former president further accused late former President Muhammadu Buhari of colluding with the judiciary during his election petitions, claiming he secured favourable judgments through financial inducements and political appointments. Obasanjo stated, “Buhari threw caution to the wind, no matter what had transpired between him and the judges who did his bidding. In his election cases, financially, he topped it up with appointments for them no matter their age and their ranks.” He condemned a pattern where false declarations of election results make losers winners and vice versa, only for aggrieved candidates to be told to seek redress in what he reiterated as “a court of corruption rather than a court of justice.”