An analysis of issues and challenges of Nigeria's criminal justice system

Abstract

Criminal justice, which is the way crimes and criminals are managed, is a common feature in most legal systems in the world. In Nigeria, the present criminal law is an offspring of British colonial rule before independence, and has undergone changes over the years in the course of transition from military to democratic regimes. The study reveals that Nigerian Criminal Justice System is fundamentally defective, and the problem is evident at every processing point in the criminal justice line. In an endeavour to ameliorate the problems and enhance the functioning of the system, the 1999 Constitution of Nigeria was amended in 2011 with some legal and institutional reforms thereafter. Despite all these, problems still remain unresolved and there seems to be no end to the challenges. Thus, the aim of this study was to examine the different issues and challenges faced by Nigeria's criminal justice system. The research also aims to add to the knowledge on synergy among various sectors and the impact of the recent constitutional amendment in 2011 and the Administration of Criminal Justice Act, 2015 on the justice system. Primary and secondary sources were used in the study. Primary sources consisted of national legal instruments and institutions related to the criminal justice system in Nigeria as follows: the Nigerian Constitution of 1999 as amended in 2011; the Police Act; the Prisons Act; Legal Aid Act; Penal Code; Criminal Code; the Criminal Procedure Code (CPC); the Criminal Procedure Act (CPA); the Administration of Criminal Justice Act, 2015; Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC) Act; as well as the Independent Corrupt Practices and other Related Offences Commission (ICPC) Act. Secondary sources consisted of scholarly works (legal texts, journal articles and magazines, among others). Data were collected on the key sectors of the Nigerian Criminal Justice System (police, judiciary and prison) from the National Bureau of Statistics (NBS) in Nigeria to serve as verifiable and reliable qualitative information and empirical evidence to substantiate the challenges in each sector. The most industrialised states with the highest population and rate of criminality were chosen to represent each of the six Nigerian geo-political zones (for data collection) in order to provide evidence on what obtains in the various zones and by extension, Nigeria. Considering the fact that contemporary legal systems, as influenced by human rights, have reformed their criminal administration to align with international human rights standards, relevant regional and international instruments, to which Nigeria is a member state, were examined in this study to measure the performance of each of Nigeria's criminal justice system sectors. Apparently, there is a failing criminal justice system in Nigeria. This is

because Nigeria has failed in its obligations to implement the dictates of the instruments that guarantee effective performance of each of the sectors in achieving international best practices in her criminal justice administration. It is recommended that the Nigerian government demonstrates commitment to domesticating the various treaties to which Nigeria is a signatory. Having consulted other jurisdictions with functional legal systems such as Canada and United States of America, some recommendations are also made that could assist all the players within the Nigerian Criminal Justice System to appreciate the duties and obligations cast upon them and thus, correct inefficiency in the justice system and take it to the level of global best practices.