CHAPTER ONE

INTRODUCTION

Background to the Study:

The Judiciary represents the court system in the land, it symbolizes judges and justice. It is the third arm of any modern government and was popularized by Montesquieu, the French political philosopher and jurist who postulated that there should be separation of judicial duties from legislative and executive functions to forestall tyranny. A court system implies a judicial arrangement of graduated competences of hierarchical structural arrangement from lower to superior courts, courts of first instance to Supreme Court, where appeals are taken or heard, and special courts or tribunals, exists in modern democratic states.

The judiciary also has other notable functions according to Akpan (2008) which include punishing offenders of the laws, swearing in of the President and other important public officers, granting letter of administration of estates and above all, guarding against an arbitrary use of power by the other arms of government. For the administration of justice to be fair and equitable in any political setting, it should combine autonomy with accessibility and a certain degree of uniformity. To be fair means that it is objective and fearless. To be equitable implies that court rules are equally applied, as rewards and punishment to both the poor and the rich. Autonomy connotes independence and authority.

Corruption has been the major problem bedeviling Nigeria, as it has virtually defied all solutions so far. In Nigeria bribery and corruption have assumed an alarming rate, established stronghold that the weekly star of 15th May, 1983, quoted in Achebe (1983.43), unequivocally maintains “that keeping an average Nigerian from being corrupt is like keeping a goat from eating yam” Corruption has been recognized as the major enemy of man, it is however, lack of political will to begin to tackle this problem, except for Buhari /Idiagbon regime (1983-1985) and Obasanjo regime (1999-2007). Past futile intervention against corruption include the Corrupt Practices Decree of 1975, the Public Officer (investigation of Assets) Decree No 5 of 1976, supplemented by the Code Of Conduct Bureau and Code Of Conduct Tribunal as provided for in the 1979 constitution. Shehu Shagari ethical revolution (1979-1983), with a minister of cabinet rank in charge of “national guidance”, the “war against indiscipline” campaign under the Buhari and Idiagbon junta which was to some extent the only serious intervention and the National committee on corruption and other Economics crimes under Ibrahim Babangida (1985-93). The IBB regime also came up with the corrupt practice and Economic crime Decree of 1990. Even the Sani Abacha regime (1994-98) came up with its own anti- corruption Decree, the “Indiscipline, Corrupt Practices and Economic Crime (prohibition) Decree 1994” which was a replica of IBB Decree of 1990. However, it is regrettable to note that inspite of interventions by past regimes to stamp out corruption, the evil monster keeps on recurring. According to Okonkwo (2005: 85), a historical view of bribery and corruption in Nigeria shows that rhetoric against corruption does not end corruption. All the inspiring words of our leaders and journalists have not changed anyone. Against this background, it has become unavoidably important to critically assess the judiciary and anticorruption in Nigeria.

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