Prospects for the Administration of Justice in Nigeria: Courts, Police, and Politics

Abstract

In assessing the outlook for the administration of justice under the second Nigerian Republic, one should consider in retrospect the political significance of courts and police, particularly as these agencies affect the work of political development and nation-building. Perhaps in deference to the myth of the apolitical judicial and legal process, little attention has been paid to the political impact of both courts and police, beyond the judicial-review powers of the higher courts or the use of the police as agents of terror.’ Comment on the more “ordinary” doings of police and courts is all too often an afterthought or is missing entirely.