Former Kaduna State Governor, Nasir El-Rufai, has criticized the Nigerian judiciary, alleging widespread corruption and partiality among judges and lawyers, whom he accused of betraying their duty to uphold justice. Speaking on Monday during the Nigerian Bar Association (NBA) Bwari Branch Law Week in Abuja, El-Rufai stated that the judiciary is steadily losing public confidence due to prolonged delays in justice delivery and judgments perceived to be swayed by external influences. “In parallel, our judiciary, meant to be the bedrock of fairness and order, is under intense scrutiny. Concerns about delayed justice, procedural inefficiencies, and in some cases, judicial compromise (to put the matter delicately), erode public confidence,” he said. El-Rufai also condemned the rising use of ex parte orders in political disputes and accused some lawyers of manipulating the judicial process for partisan gain. “The rise in forum shopping, the weaponisation of ex parte orders in political matters, and the growing perception that justice is for sale and available only to the rich and the powerful would cause the perceptive observer to conclude that what Nigerian courts do is the administration of law and not the administration of justice,” he said. The ex-governor further argued that the judiciary has become subservient to the executive, with a widening gap between legal outcomes and actual justice. “In Nigeria, there is a seemingly unbridgeable gulf between law and justice. Not only is justice wanting, but the law that is administered seems to be according to the wishes of the Executive,” he said. Calling for reform, El-Rufai urged legal professionals to critically assess their roles and recommit to upholding the ideals of justice.