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Prospects for the Administration of Justice in Nigeria: Courts, Police, and Politics

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  13 August 2021

Helen Marshall Carter
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Extract

In assessing the outlook for the administration of justice under the second Nigerian Republic, one should consider in retrospect the political significance of courts and police, particularly as these agencies affect the work of political development and nation-building. Perhaps in deference to the myth of the apolitical judicial and legal process, little attention has been paid to the political impact of both courts and police, beyond the judicial-review powers of the higher courts or the use of the police as agents of terror.’ Comment on the more “ordinary” doings of police and courts is all too often an afterthought or is missing entirely.

Type
Research Article
Information
African Issues , Volume 11 , Issue 1-2 , Spring/Summer 1981 , pp. 29 - 34
Copyright
Copyright © African Studies Association 1981 

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References

Notes

1. See Becker, Theodore L., Comparative Judicial Politics: The Political Functionings of Courts (Chicago: Rand McNally, 1970)Google Scholar; Enloe, Cynthia H., Police, Military and Ethnicity: Foundations of State Power (New Brunswick, N.J.: Transaction Books, 1979)Google Scholar; David H. Bayley, “The Police and Political Change in Comparative Perspective,” Law and Society Review 6: no. 1 (August 1971); Christian P. Potholm, “The Multiple Roles of the Police as Seen in the African Context,” Journal of Developing Areas 3 (January 1969).

2. Becker, Politics, pp. 362-69; Harding, Alan, A Social History of English Law (Baltimore: Penguin, 1966)Google Scholar, chaps. 1, 2; Bayley, David H., “The Police and Political Development in Europe,” in The Formation of National States in Europe, Tully, Charles, ed. (Princeton, N.J.: Princeton University Press, 1974)Google Scholar. Courts and enforcement are important in non-state systems as well, of course, but in different ways.

3. Strayer, Joseph R., “The Historical Experience of Nation-Building in Europe,” Nation-Building, Deutsch, Karl W. and Foltz, William J., ed. (New York: Atherton Press, 1966)Google Scholar; and On the Medieval Origins of the Modern State (Princeton, N.J.: Princeton University Press, 1970).

4. Scheingold, Stuart, The Law in Political Integration: The Evolution and Integrative Implications of Regional Legal Processes in the European Community (Cambridge, Mass.: Harvard University Center for International Affairs, 1971)Google Scholar.

5. Billias, George Athan, ed., Law and Authority in Colonial America (New York: Dover, 1970)Google Scholar; Dargo, George, Jefferson’s Louisiana: Politics and the Clash of Legal Traditions (Cambridge, Mass.: Harvard University Press, 1975)CrossRefGoogle Scholar; Ellis, Richard E., The Jeffersonian Crisis: Courts and Politics in the Young Republic (New York: Oxford University Press, 1971)Google Scholar.

6. Allott, A. N., Essays in African Law (London: Butterworths, 1960), pp. 197–201 Google Scholar; Daniels, W. C. E., The Common Law in West Africa (London: Butterworths, 1964), pp. 266-97Google Scholar; Caplan, Gerald M., “The Making of Natural Justice in British Africa: An Exercise in Comparative Law,” Journal of African Law 13, no. 2 (1964)Google Scholar.

7. Illegal courts are still being attacked throughout Nigeria; see the Daily Times stories of 28 May, 1974 and 10 February, 1975, and West Africa, 12 December, 1978, p. 2609, for some examples.

8. Morris, H. F. and Read, James S., East Africa in Indirect Rule and the Search for Justice: Essays in East African Legal History (London: Oxford University Press, 1973)Google Scholar; Hailey, Lord, Native Administration in the British African Territories (London: H.M. Stationery Office, 1950-1953)Google Scholar; Bentsi-Enchill, Kwamena, ‘The Colonial Heritage of Legal Pluralism,” Zambia Law Journal 1, no. 2 (1969)Google Scholar; Hooker, M. B., Legal Pluralism: An Introduction to Colonial and Neo-Colonial Laws (New York: Oxford University Press, 1976)Google Scholar.

9. In the Western area, for example, there were outbreaks of violence from 1914 on; the better-known Aba riots of the Eastern portion of the southern province occurred much later. As a result, the colonial administration was forced to institute more thorough research into native institutions.

10. Keay, E. A. and Richardson, S. S., The Native and Customary Courts of Nigeria (London: Sweet and Maxwell, 1966)Google Scholar; Adewoye, Omoniyi, The Judicial System in Southern Nigeria, 1854-1954 (London: Longman, 1978)Google Scholar; David Craig Dorward, “British Colonial Administration among the Tiv, 1900-1949,” African Affairs 68 (October 1969); Smith, M. G., Government in Zazzau, 1800-1950 (London: Oxford University Press, 1960)Google Scholar.

11. Twining, William L., The Place of Customary Law in the National Legal Systems of East Africa (Chicago: The Law School, University of Chicago, 1964), pp. 4–8 Google Scholar; Allott, Essays, pp. 61-63; J. H. Jearey, “The Structure, Composition and Jurisdiction of Courts and Authorities Enforcing the Criminal Law in British African Territories,” International and Comparative Law Quarterly 9 (July 1960).

12. See the symposium in Modern Law Review 24 (September 1961): J. N. D. Anderson, “A Major Advance,” Olu Odumosu, “The Northern Nigerian Codes,” and Justin Price, “Retrograde Legislation in Northern Nigeria? Criminal Law Reform in Northern Nigeria.” S. S. Richardson, “Opting-Out: An Experiment with Jurisdiction in Northern Nigeria,” Journal of African Law 8, no. 1 (1964), is also useful, as is Anderson, “Return Visit to Nigeria.’ Judicial and Legal Developments in the Northern Region,” International and Comparative Law Quarterly 12 (January 1963). On Uganda and Zambia, see Morris, H. F., “Changes in the Structure and Jurisdiction of the Courts and in the Criminal Law They Administer,” Journal of African Law 20, no. 1 (1965)Google Scholar, and Spalding, Francis O., Hoover, Earl L., and Piper, John C., “One Nation, One Judiciary: The Lower Courts of Zambia,” Zambia Law Journal 2, nos. 1–2 Google Scholar.

13. Sklar, Richard L., Nigerian Political Parties (Princeton, N.J.: Princeton University Press, 1963)Google Scholar, and “Nigerian Politics in Perspective,” Government and Opposition 2, no. 4 (1967).

14. For example, Nwabueze, B. O., Judicialism in Commonwealth Africa: The Role of the Courts in Government (London: C. Hurst, 1977)Google Scholar. on the “blatant use of the native or customary courts as instruments in the power struggle” (p. 275). On survey evidence, see Peil, Margaret, Nigerian Politics: The People’s View (London: Cassell, 1976)Google Scholar, and Helen Marshall Carter, “Customary Courts and Nation Building: The Case of Northern Nigeria,” paper presented at the Western Political Science Association, Los Angeles, March 1978.

15. The speech is reprinted in Nigerian Politics and Military Rule: The Prelude to the Civil War, Panter-Brick, S. K. and Dawson, P. F., ed. (London: Athlone Press, 1970), pp. 196–200 Google Scholar. West Africa commented on 15 April, 1967 that “in Northern Nigeria this is a real revolution.” Reforms took effect in the six new states on 1 April, 1968.

16. Keay, E. A., “Legal and Constitutional Changes in Nigeria under the Military Government,” Journal of African Law 10, no. 2 (1966)CrossRefGoogle Scholar; Obilade, A. O., “Reform of Customary Court Systems in Nigeria under the Military Government,” Nigerian Law Journal 3 (1969)Google Scholar.

17. Tamuno, T. N., Police in Modern Nigeria, 1861-1965 (Ibadan: University of Ibadan Press, 1970)Google Scholar.

18. Address by the Governor, Sir Hugh Clifford to the Nigerian Legislative Council (Government Printer, 1923), p. 29.

19. Milner, Alan, “The Maintenance of Public Order in Nigeria,” The Politics and Administration of Nigerian Government, Blitz, L. Franklin, ed. (New York: Praeger, 1965)Google Scholar; Ohonbamu, O., “The Dilemma of Police Organisation under a Federal System: The Nigerian Experience,” Nigerian Law Journal 6 (1972)Google Scholar.

20. Working Party on Police and Prisons: Report (Lagos: 1967), especially paragraphs 95-97. See also Wasikhongo, J. M., “Role and Character of Police in Africa and Western Countries: A Comparative Approach to Police Isolation,” International Journal of Criminology and Penology 4, no. 4 (November 1976)Google Scholar.

21. For example, nearly three-quarters of the respondents in five of six Northern locales gave the local courts a bad rating on helping the ordinary person to get justice, and the exception, in Kano, rose only to a 44 percent “yes.” Perhaps the comment by one respondent best summed it up: “They better stop selling justice.” See Carter, “Customary Courts,” pp. 10-15.

22. New Nigerian, 6 August, 3 and 15 November 1975; 5 February 1976.

23. New Nigerian, 6 January, 1976.

24. New Nigerian, 12 and 14 January 1976.

25. See the reports in West Africa, 31 January, 21 and 28 March, 16 May, 3 October, and 14 November, 1977, and 27 February, 20 March, 6 June, and August, 1978. Obasanjo’s remarks to the All-Nigeria Conference of Judges were reported in the New Nigerian, 9 June, and Nigerian Herald, 10 June 1978. See Nwogugu, E. I., “Abolition of Customary Courts: The Nigerian Experiment,” Journal of African Law 20, no. 1 (1976)CrossRefGoogle Scholar.

26. Panter-Brick, K., “The Constitution Drafting Committee,” Soldiers and Oil: The Political Transformation of Nigeria, Panter-Brick, , ed., (London: Frank Cass, 1978), pp. 326-29Google Scholar; also Abubakar Yaya Aliyu, “Local Government Reform as Seen in Kaduna,” in ibid., pp. 274, 286.

27. Carter, Marshall and Marenin, Otwin, “The Political Role of the Police in the Draft Constitution,” Nigerian Behavioral Science Quarterly 1, no. 2 (1977)Google Scholar.

28. Obilade, A. O., The Nigerian Legal System (London: Sweet and Maxwell, 1979)Google Scholar, Kasunmu, A. B., ed.. The Supreme Court of Nigeria (London: Heinemann, 1978)Google Scholar; West Africa, 3 January and 6 June, 1977, 20 March and 7 August, 1978, 3 March and 25 June, 1979, and on recruitment, 2 May and 5 December, 1977.

29. West Africa, 28 March, 25 April, and 15 August, 1977; editorial, 12 December, 1977, p. 2491; 17 and 24 April, 1 May, 21 and 28 August, 1978. Mohammed Haruna, “The Sharia Controversy,” New Nigerian, 18 April, 1978; M. J. Dent, “Dangers of Polarity in Religious Matters,” West Africa, 24 April, 1978, pp. 780-81.

30. See Carter, and Marenin, , “Police in the Community: Perceptions of a Government Agency in Action in Nigeria,” African Law Studies, no. 14 (1977)Google Scholar. The expansion of the NPF reached a high of 84,095 members and then dropped, with provision for 83,519 in 1979-80; West Africa, 14 May, 1979. A National Police Council was established by decree in March 1978. On the local police issue, see the comments of the outgoing Kano commissioner and the then governor. West Africa, 3 July and 21 August, 1978, pp. 1315 and 1660.

31. Smith, David N., “Man and Law in Urban Africa: A Role for Customary Courts in the Urbanization Process,” American Journal of Comparative Law 20, no. 2 (1972)CrossRefGoogle Scholar; Bush, Robert A., “Modern Roles for Customary Justice,” Stanford Law Review 26 (May 1974)CrossRefGoogle Scholar; Harvey, William B., “African Law and Basic Institutions: A Search for Perspective,” Kansas Law Review 13 (1964)Google Scholar, Carl E. Schwarz, “Informal Justice Mechanisms in the U.S., Cuba, and Mexico,” paper presented at the Western Political Science Association, Los Angeles, March 1978.

32. Ellis, The Jeffersonian Crisis, pp. 4-5.

33. Ibid., p. 249.

34. For the court cases, see West Africa 26 February, 14 May, 23 and 30 July, and 6 August, 1979; on the Gambia, see ibid., 4 June, 1979. Some interesting comparative comment is found in Kidder, Robert L., “Law and Political Crisis: An Assessment of the Indian Legal System’s Potential Role,” Asian Survey 16, no. 9 (September 1976)CrossRefGoogle Scholar.