Former President Olusegun Obasanjo has passed a damming verdict on the nation’s judiciary, citing deep rooted corruption and political interference as factors eroding public trust.

In his new book, ‘Nigeria: Past and Future,’ the ex-president uncovered what he calls the judiciary’s “precipitous fall” from independence to the current Fourth Republic.

The book published by OOPL under the Olusegun Obasanjo Presidential Library, contended that the reputation of the judiciary has steadily declined over decades, reaching a “lamentable” state in today’s democracy.

He warned that when justice is available only to the highest bidder, society faces “despair, anarchy, and violence” instead of fairness and order.

While drawing on personal observations, he recalled visiting a northern state about ten years after leaving office, where a governor pointed out six duplexes allegedly built by a judge using funds acquired as chairman of election tribunals. Such examples, he claims, explain why politicians often distrust the electoral process.

“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,” he wrote.

“He warned that justice had become commodified in Nigeria, with dangerous consequences for the nation’s stability.

“The great fear of most well-meaning Nigerians and good friends of Nigeria is that where ‘justice’ is only available to the highest bidder, despair, anarchy, and violence would substitute justice, order, and hope,” Obasanjo said.

“The governor pointed to the buildings and stated that they belonged to a judge who put them up from the money he made from being the chairman of election tribunals.”

He further alleged that tribunal judges, appellate justices, and even the Supreme Court have in multiple cases “corruptly overridden the will of millions of voters.”

He concluded sharply that courts often serve as “courts of corruption rather than courts of justice.

Obasanjo directly criticised Professor Mahmood Yakubu, head of the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC), accusing the agency of prioritizing the chairman’s will over the people’s since 2015.

“No wonder politicians do not put much confidence in an election which the INEC of Professor Mahmood Yakubu polluted and grossly undermined to make a charade,” he added.

“Most politicians believe in the will of the tribunal judges, court of appeal judges and supreme court judges.

“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.

“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 ex-resident also claimed that former President Muhammadu Buhari benefited from such judicial favoritism, rewarding judges involved in his election disputes with appointments regardless of rank or age.

“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.”

“After a false declaration of results, making losers winners and winners losers, the victim of the cheating is advised to go to court, which is a court of corruption rather than a court of justice.”

Obasanjo’s remarks underscore widespread concerns about the credibility of Nigeria’s elections and the integrity of its judiciary, a matter of persistent anxiety for both citizens and international observers.

Taking to his X handle, a Professor of law and author of recently published ‘The Selectorate,’ Chidi Odinkalu, a book about ‘When Judges Topple the People’, observed that “President Olusegun Obasanjo’s latest book has some choice offerings on the Nigerian judiciary….”

Odinkalu, himself, an ardent critic of the judiciary, has at different fora, accused the third arm of government of engaging in corrupt practices.

In his book, “The Selectorate: When Judges topple The People,” Odinkalu examines how judicial manipulation in election disputes corruptly affect the will of the electorate.

Drawing on legal insight and first-hand experience, he unpacked the consequences of this quiet transformation and what it means for both judicial independence and the future of democracy in Africa. (Daily Sun)