Aisha Yesufu: Nigeria’s Judiciary Has Failed The Nation And Betrayed Its Oath

Aisha Yesufu says Nigeria’s judiciary has failed the nation, becoming a tool for corrupt politicians over the common man.

Prominent political activist and human rights campaigner, Aisha Yesufu, has sharply criticised the Nigerian judiciary, accusing it of betraying both the constitution and the citizens it is meant to serve.

Speaking with ARISE NEWS on Monday in response to recent controversies surrounding court rulings and the ongoing case of Senator Natasha Akpoti-Uduaghan, who was seeking to resume at the National Assembly, Yesufu said the judiciary has become a “plaything of corrupt politicians” and no longer offers protection to the common man.

“Our Nigerian judiciary, they should wake up,” she declared. “They’ve failed the system, they’ve failed the country, they’ve failed even the oath that they swore.”

According to Yesufu, the judicial arm of government—once considered the last hope of the common man—has instead become increasingly compromised, frequently disregarded by institutions and openly manipulated by the political class.

“The Nigerian judiciary that is supposed to be the last resort of the common man, is now the plaything of corrupt politicians and they are so brazen in the way that they show that off. And they don’t care, they don’t follow the rules.”

She pointed to examples where injunctions issued by the courts, such as those related to the suspension of certain legislators, have been flagrantly ignored by the National Assembly. “They didn’t listen; they didn’t bother,” she said, adding that such blatant disregard for the law erodes the authority of the judiciary and emboldens impunity.

Yesufu also criticized what she described as a culture of selective compliance with court rulings. “We’ve had a situation whereby a lot of institutions decide what rulings of the courts they’re going to obey. And that’s a problem.”

Even more troubling, she said, is the tendency of judges to appear influenced by the “body language” of those who appear before them—often powerful political actors. “Politicians are the ones dictating a lot of things for our judiciary,” she asserted.

She called on the judiciary to “sit up” and begin an internal reformation process, one that restores credibility, independence, and justice.

She stated, “The judiciary in itself should sit up and on its own begin to reorganize itself in a way that it’s more effective for the people, and that the common man will have a place of solace and not what we currently have right now, where the politicians will look you in your face and tell you to go to court, because they know they own the courts.”