Consolidating Nigerian Democracy in the Fourth Republic: The role of the Judiciary

Abstract

This paper examines democratic consolidation in Nigeria in the fourth republic and the role that  the judicial institution could play in sustaining democracy in this present era. It posits that against  the backdrop of endemic and systemic corruption, economic crisis, manipulation of both the  electoral and constitutional arrangements for personal and party advantages, political exclusion,  attempts at blackmailing and emasculating both the judiciary by strong men, intolerance of  opposition by ruling political parties and a tendency towards authoritarianism, it is obvious that  democracy is under threat in this present era. These challenges have the capacity to derail the  country’s current democratic experiment and/or cause democratic breakdown. The study makes use  of the secondary sources of information such as internet, journals, and articles as data sources. The  paper argues that institutional weakness of the judiciary is the bane of democratic consolidation in  Nigeria especially in this fourth Republic. It concludes by recommending that, strengthening of  Nigerian judiciary serves as a panacea to the challenge of democratic consolidation in the country  and various punishments and sanctions should be awarded to erring judges who indulged in corrupt  practices such punishment like death sentence, dismissal from service, public humiliation by sending  them to prisons to serve jail terms. It will be so humiliating for a judge to serve a jail term with the  people he might have presided over their cases while serving as a judge in court.