President Bola Ahmed Tinubu has called upon the judiciary to restructure the legal system to guarantee that influential individuals can no longer exploit technicalities to escape accountability under the law.
This is as he also insisted that corruption cannot be uprooted without independent, reform-minded judicial system.
President Tinubu gave the charge on Tuesday in Abuja during the annual EFCC/NJI Capacity Building Workshop for Judges and Justices.
Represented by Vice President Kashim Shettima, Tinubu urged the judiciary to interrogate existing statutory frameworks against the backdrop of emerging financial crimes.
He called for the probe of prosecution strategies, “dismantle outdated precedents, and seal procedural gaps that politically exposed persons and organised crime actors exploit to delay or frustrate trial”.
The President warned that while financial and economic crimes pose an existential threat to Nigeria, corruption has no respect for status and spares no arm of government.
According to him, framing the anti-corruption campaign as purely an executive agenda is a fundamental error because compromised public services equally affect the executive, legislature, judiciary, and ordinary citizens.
Noting that corruption is a battle for the nation’s collective survival, President Tinubu said, “We must no longer permit legal pyrotechnics and procedural pedantry to shelter criminality. The Bench is not merely a mechanical arbiter of rules, but an active guardian of moral order and social equity.
“Law is, by design, an instrument of social engineering; it must invariably prioritise the public good over narrow, selfish interests shielded by technical manoeuvres. Our courts must embody the spirit, and not just the arid letter, of the law.”
The President maintained that there will be no meaningful progress in uprooting graft “without an independent, progressive, and reform-minded Bench,” even as he commended the EFCC for convening the 8th edition of the Judges and Justices Workshop.
He said the workshop with the theme, “Investigation and Prosecution of Economic and Financial Crimes in a Digital Age,” was timely and necessary in “fostering the institutional cohesion required to confront corruption’s ever-changing architecture in Nigeria.
Speaking earlier, the Chief Justice of Nigeria, Hon. Justice Kudirat Kekere-Ekun, said the event reflects the commitment of the NJI and EFCC to sustain efforts aimed at addressing challenges confronting stakeholders in Nigeria’s justice system.
She said the trend in technology has impacted how digital evidence is obtained and recorded, noting that the effective administration of criminal justice in the digital era require firm and disciplined case management which, according to her, capacity building programmes such as the EFCC and NJI collaboration, aims to strengthen.
The CJN noted that sustained judicial education and capacity development in the justice sector was yielding positive results with the improved conduct of judicial officers especially judges in case management and the dispensation of justice in recent years.
What You Should Know
President Bola Ahmed Tinubu has charged the judiciary to close legal loopholes and eliminate procedural delays that powerful and politically exposed individuals often use to frustrate financial crime trials. Speaking through Vice President Kashim Shettima at an EFCC and NJI workshop for judges, the President emphasized that fighting corruption requires an independent, reform-minded bench that places public interest above narrow legal technicalities.
- Potential Positive Impact: A more streamlined and resolute judicial process can lead to faster prosecution of economic crimes, potentially recovering stolen public funds and strengthening public trust in the rule of law.
- Potential Concerns: Critics and legal practitioners may monitor closely to ensure that the push for speed does not inadvertently compromise the fundamental right to fair hearing and thorough due process in courtrooms.
