The 2014 revised judicial discipline regulations of the national judicial council: A clog in the fight against judicial corruption in Nigeria

Abstract

It was Chinua Achebe in his book titled “There was a Country”² that states that corruption in Nigeria has passed the alarming and entered the final stage, and Nigeria will die if we continue to pretend that she is only slightly indisposed. He went further to state that Nigerians are corrupt because the system they live under today makes corruption easy and profitable. The National Judicial Council (NJC) recently published a Revised Judicial Discipline Regulation which regulates the reception and consideration of complaints against judges. The new rule is aimed at curtailing frivolous petitions against judges and prevents judges from being distracted by vexatious and baseless allegation against them. The writer has looked at the new rule holistically and come up with a view that the new rule will hurt the fight against judicial corruption and other misconducts in the administration of justice in Nigeria. In this article, the NJC is urgently urged to revisit the new rule and remove those provisions that will hinder the efforts in fighting judicial corruption in Nigeria.

Keywords: National Judicial Council, Judicial Discipline Regulation, Corruption, Nigeria