Maduekwe, Vincent Chuks

Lecturer Department of Political Science Chukwuemeke Ojukwu University Igbariam campus

DOI : https://doi.org/10.47191/ijsshr/v4-i8-27

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ABSTRACT

“The Supreme Court is final not because it is infallible; but it is infallible because it is final” – this status quo of the Supreme Court of Nigeria and its application in various electoral cases, especially in the just concluded 2019 general elections in Nigeria has aroused mixed feelings and raised questions on the credibility of the Nigerian Judiciary and its capability of enshrining sustainable democracy in Nigeria. Meanwhile, according to the report of the Kayode Eso Panel on Reform of the Judiciary, the mindset of an average Nigerian is that “the Nigerian Judiciary hardly redeems itself from the unfortunate image it acquired during the military interregnum when it was described as a judiciary in patent chaos, riddled with corrupt Judges and in need of urgent and radical reform”. This study which sought to explore the infallibility of the Supreme Court and sustainable democracy in Nigeria; the effect of the infallibility of the Supreme Court verdicts on sustainable democracy in Nigeria; and the effects of bribery and corruption of the Supreme Court Justices on sustainable democracy in Nigeria, is an exploratory research which employed qualitative method of research and adopted the Transitional Jurisprudence Model as propounded by Ruti Teitel (2015) to analyze these. The study found that the bribery and corruption of the Supreme Court Justices has significant effect on sustainable democracy in Nigeria; and that the infallibility of the Supreme Court verdicts have significant effect on sustainable democracy in Nigeria. The study recommends among others that there is need for the independence and accountability of the Judiciary with the other arms of the government in Nigeria.

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VOlUME 04 ISSUE 08 August 2021