Bishop Matthew Hassan Kukah, Archbishop of Sokoto Catholic Diocese and a member of the Justice Uwais Electoral Reform panel, said the Nigerian judiciary is entangled in politics.
He stated this at the 8th House of Justice Summit held in Kaduna at the weekend with the theme: ‘Electoral Accountability and Democratic Stability.’
“I am saddened by the fact that the judiciary has now found itself being sucked into politics,” Kukah stated.
While calling on the judiciary to redeem its image by dispensing justice without fear or favour, he said, “Elections will always give us what I call unintended consequences but it is also important to understand that a contest is always a contest and you use the experience of this to prepare for the next contest.”
The cleric said that Nigerians should not lose hope, stating that the best is still to come.
Rather than worrying about the next generation, he argued that Nigerians should be focused on the present, adding that every generation will confront its own problems.
Senator Shehu Sani who represented Kaduna in the 8th National Assembly called on President Ahmed Bola Tinubu to immediately initiate an electoral reform programme that will correct the mistakes that have been made and also chart ways forward for the country.
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“Tinubu has been a man at the forefront of the struggle for democracy. He was one of those forced into exile during the struggle for democracy, so even if the election that brought him into power has been seriously challenged and flawed, he owes it as a duty to the nation and posterity to initiate necessary electoral reform that will make 2027 election better in conduct than the recent one.
“Also, there is a need for judicial reform to ensure that those who will preside over electoral cases are insulated from compromise. People have lost hope in the executive and legislative arms of government, and now the judiciary too is fast going in that direction.
“What happened in Plateau and Kano states are serious matters that challenge the honour and integrity of the judiciary. Events unfolding in this country should be of serious concern to all of us because if we don’t have electoral accountability we cannot have national stability,” Sani said.
Also speaking, a former Military Governor of Rivers State, General Zamani Lekwot said there can never be democratic stability without equity, justice, and respect for the votes of the people.
“Politics is like all other games, guided by rules. We have the democratic instability problem because of the gross abuse of the rules by some of the key actors, especially the elites,” he said.
