_By Sam Agogo_
I have watched Nigerian democracy survive military threats, electoral fraud, and the worst instincts of its political class.
What I did not expect to be writing about, in the year 2026, is the systematic use of our own courts to dismantle political competition before a single vote is cast.
The Federal High Court’s ruling of June 26, stripping the NDC of its registration, is not a procedural matter. It is a warning — and Nigeria must heed it.Since 1999, Nigeria has maintained an uninterrupted democratic tradition — imperfect, contentious, frequently bruised, but unbroken. Twenty-seven years of successive civilian administrations, navigated without a single soldier walking into Aso Rock uninvited. That is not a small thing. In a continent that has watched democracy crumble in Mali, Burkina Faso, Niger, Guinea, Gabon, and Sudan, Nigeria’s democratic run represents a precious inheritance. It is an inheritance now being frittered away, not by tanks, but by gavels.The ruling by Justice Isah Dashen set aside an earlier judgment ordering INEC to register the NDC. The court held the decision was procedurally defective because the Peace Movement Party had not been heard. On the face of it, that sounds principled. But the NDC maintains that the Peace Movement Party is not even a registered entity in Nigeria — not among the 18 registered parties when the original suit was filed, nor among the 171 associations that applied to INEC for registration. If this is true, then the court has vacated a legitimate judgment, at the most consequential moment in the pre-election calendar, on the application of an entity that may not legally exist. That is not due process. That is judicial theatre.The timing of the ruling is impossible to ignore. It arrived on the very day INEC was expected to open its portal for candidate nominations. NDC lawmakers have described it as a judicial coup. And they are right to do so. A coup does not require soldiers. When the judiciary is deployed to accomplish what elections might not, the outcome is functionally identical to any other act of democratic subversion.This is not about loyalty to one party. It is about loyalty to the principle of competition. Democracy thrives on choice. A multiparty system in which opposition parties are eliminated through judicial maneuvers is not democracy at all. It is the performance of democracy — a stage play in which the ending has been scripted before the curtain rises.The danger of this weaponisation of justice is not abstract. It strikes at the very heart of Nigeria’s political future. If courts can be used to silence opposition before ballots are cast, then elections become hollow rituals. Citizens are asked to participate in a process whose outcome has already been arranged. That is not democracy. That is deception.Judges who participate in such rulings must understand that their robes do not absolve them of accountability. The Bench is not a sanctuary from civic responsibility. History records everything. The names of judges who deliver rulings that shrink the democratic space will be remembered. The names of those who file suits at politically strategic moments will be remembered. Their children will inherit that record.But responsibility does not rest with judges alone. Community leaders — traditional rulers, ward elders, religious councils — must recognize that silence in the face of democratic sabotage is complicity. Religious bodies such as the Christian Association of Nigeria (CAN), the Jama’atu Nasril Islam (JNI), the Catholic Bishops’ Conference, and the Pentecostal Fellowship must call this what it is: a moral failure. To remain silent is to betray the covenant between governors and the governed.No Nigerian who loves this country wants to see the military return. But military incursions do not happen in a vacuum. They occur when civilian leaders so thoroughly discredit democracy — through rigging, judicial manipulation, and the silencing of opposition — that citizens lose faith in the process entirely. It is not a justification, but it is a pattern. And Nigeria is dangerously close to repeating it.This is not the first time Nigeria’s judiciary has been accused of shrinking the democratic space. In 2003, several opposition parties challenged the presidential election results, only to see their petitions dismissed on technical grounds. In 2019, the Supreme Court’s ruling that removed Emeka Ihedioha as governor of Imo State and installed Hope Uzodinma was widely criticized as judicial overreach. In 2020, INEC deregistered 74 political parties, citing poor performance in elections, a move upheld by the courts. Each of these episodes chipped away at pluralism, reinforcing the perception that courts can be used as instruments of political convenience.Nigeria is not alone in this struggle. In Kenya, the judiciary has played both villain and hero. The annulment of the 2017 presidential election by the Supreme Court was hailed as a triumph of judicial independence, but subsequent rulings have been criticized as politically motivated. In Ghana, the judiciary has generally maintained credibility, especially during the 2012 and 2020 election petitions, where despite heated disputes, the courts were seen as impartial arbiters. South Africa’s Constitutional Court has often stood as a bulwark against executive overreach, reinforcing democratic norms. Nigeria’s judiciary, by contrast, risks becoming a tool of suppression rather than a guardian of democracy.To safeguard Nigeria’s democracy, reforms are urgently needed. Judicial appointments must be insulated from political influence, with transparent processes that prioritize merit and integrity. Electoral cases should be fast-tracked and decided well before critical deadlines, to prevent rulings that conveniently coincide with nomination periods. Civil society must demand accountability, pushing for constitutional amendments that limit the judiciary’s ability to deregister parties without clear, objective criteria. INEC itself must be strengthened, with its independence guaranteed by law and practice, so that it cannot be manipulated through judicial backdoors. Nigerians must cultivate a culture of vigilance, refusing to accept democracy as mere performance.The judiciary must remember its role as the guardian of democracy, not its executioner. INEC must resist being drawn into the theatre of judicial manipulation. Civil society must raise its voice against rulings that shrink the democratic space. And ordinary Nigerians must refuse to accept a democracy that is reduced to performance.Democracy is not a gift from those in power. It is a right that belongs to the people. No court order, however elegantly drafted, can extinguish that right in the hearts of citizens determined to claim it. Nigeria’s democratic inheritance is too precious to be squandered by judicial complicity. The robe must never become a weapon.
For comments, reflections and further conversation:
Email: samuelagogo4one@yahoo.com
Phone: +2348055847364
Post Views: 26
