Building Nigeria Where Justice Works 

At the 2026 Anthony Cardinal Okogie Foundation Annual Lecture in Lagos, Prof. Yemi Osinbajo turned the abstract debate over Nigeria’s rule of law into a deeply human question, writes Sunday Ehigiator 

For the widow who loses her home after her husband dies, justice is getting her house back. For the teacher who saves for years to buy a piece of land only to discover that someone else has taken possession of it, justice is about recovering what she paid for. And for the woman whose husband, the family breadwinner, is killed in an accident, justice is about receiving compensation that can help her raise the six children he left behind.

These were some of the human stories used by former Vice President, Prof. Yemi Osinbajo, to make a larger point about Nigeria’s justice system at the 2026 Annual Lecture of the Anthony Cardinal Okogie Foundation (ACOF) in Lagos.

Osinbajo, who was the guest speaker, placed the question of justice at the centre of Nigeria’s democratic future, arguing that the law must ultimately work for the people it was created to protect.

The lecture, organised by the Lagos Archdiocese Catholic Men Organisation of Nigeria (LACMON), was themed, “Rule of Law in Nigeria: The Challenges of Leadership Compliance.”

The Human Face of Justice

The majority of cases before Nigerian courts, Osinbajo noted, do not involve government. They are disputes between individuals and organisations. For the people involved, one of the most important questions is what happens after judgment.

A citizen may spend years in court, pay lawyers, endure adjournments and eventually obtain a favourable judgment. Yet if that judgment cannot be enforced, the victory may remain largely theoretical.

That distinction between obtaining justice and enforcing justice captures one of the central weaknesses in the country’s justice system. For the ordinary Nigerian, justice is not complete when a judge delivers a ruling. It is complete when the person whose rights have been violated can actually recover what belongs to them, obtain protection and return to a life of dignity. That was the essence of the people-centred justice system Osinbajo advocated. One of his stories was about a woman whose husband died, leaving her with three young daughters. Soon after his death, the man’s father and brothers arrived at the family home, threw the widow and her children out, took possession of the house she had built with her husband and seized the family’s car.

She had no money and nowhere to turn. She was forced to go to court, but the case became stuck for years. For such a woman, justice is the return of her home, the recovery of her car and the protection of her children.

Another story involved a teacher who had saved money over several years and used her earnings to purchase a quarter-acre of land for N500,000. Someone else subsequently took possession of the property. She went to court, but three years later, the dispute was still unresolved.

Again, the meaning of justice for her will be an effective court order restoring her property and protecting her from further dispossession.

“These are all stories, but these are not technical cases. They are the real experiences of Nigerians whose lives and livelihoods were suddenly thrown into disarray,” Osinbajo said.

 When Justice Becomes a Development Issue

The consequences of a weak justice system extend far beyond the courtroom. The denial or delay of justice, Osinbajo argued, is simultaneously a legal, developmental, governance and moral crisis.

Land disputes, conflicts between farmers and herders, domestic violence and other disagreements can escalate into wider community tensions when people no longer believe that an impartial institution can resolve their grievances.

“The absence of justice actually fuels mistrust—mistrust in government because the government is supposed to be the protector,” Osinbajo said. That mistrust has implications for democracy itself. A citizen who believes that the law works only for the rich, powerful or politically connected may eventually lose faith not only in the courts but in the institutions of the state. Once confidence in those institutions begins to disappear, democracy becomes weaker.

The Justice People Can Understand

Osinbajo’s argument was that reform must begin by changing the way justice is understood. Justice, he said, must be designed from the perspective of the person seeking it, rather than simply from the perspective of lawyers and legal institutions. “How many people were able to get justice? How long did it take? What did it cost them? Did the outcome make their lives better?” he asked. Those, he said, are the true tests of a justice system.

For Osinbajo, the answer lies partly in making justice easier to navigate. Technology should be deployed to enable citizens to obtain information, lodge complaints and follow their cases without repeated journeys. Legal information should be made available in languages ordinary people understand. 

Data should be collected to establish where the greatest legal needs exist, while justice institutions should be adequately funded.

The Danger of Technicality

Another major concern was excessive legal technicality. Osinbajo questioned the wisdom of allowing procedural technicalities to determine the fate of cases after years of litigation. He cited cases in which disputes could effectively end because of the manner in which court processes were signed.

His concern was that procedure should not become so detached from the purpose of justice that technical errors overwhelm substantive rights. The central questions, he suggested, should always be what harm has the person suffered? What remedy will put that person in a better position? Does the outcome advance justice? Does the weaker party become better off? And can the outcome be explained to the ordinary citizen as fair?

These questions, he argued, should inform legislation, judicial decisions, legal education and the daily practice of lawyers.

Law students should therefore not be trained only to identify rules and precedents. They should also understand the human consequences of those rules. Judges should not ask only whether a decision is legally defensible; they should also consider whether it advances constitutional values such as dignity, equality and justice. Lawyers, too, should see themselves not simply as legal technicians but as participants in a public system whose credibility is vital to democracy.

“If the justice system does not work for the nation, if it is inaccessible, if it is unaffordable, if it is incomplete, or if there is undue delay, then no matter how elegant our laws are, the system simply does not work,” he said.

Leadership Begins With 

Obedience

But while access to justice was central to the discussion, the lecture’s theme raised a fundamental question about what happens when those who make and enforce the law refuse to submit themselves to it. This was the concern addressed by the Archbishop of Lagos, Most Rev. Alfred Adewale Martins.

For Martins, respect for the rule of law is a moral responsibility. The principle is that everyone must be subject to the law, including those entrusted with political leadership.

No political office, wealth, influence or social status, he argued, should place anyone above the law. The Archbishop identified corruption, impunity, political interference, selective application of the law, disregard for due process and abuse of public office as major challenges confronting Nigeria. But leadership compliance cannot be demanded only from politicians. It must also begin with citizens.

A society cannot condemn corruption in government while tolerating bribery in everyday life. Citizens cannot demand justice while supporting injustice simply because the person involved belongs to their political party, ethnic group, family or religious community.

For Martins, consistency is central to the rule of law. The values professed in churches, mosques, schools and public institutions must also be reflected in everyday conduct. The nation, he argued, needs leaders of character, conscience and courage.

The Citizen’s Responsibility

That brings the argument back to citizen responsibility.  Politicians may over-promise, Osinbajo said, but voters have a duty to challenge those promises. The problem becomes more complicated when citizens vote primarily on ethnic or religious identity rather than competence, character and capacity.

Nigeria’s problems, he argued, are too real and too urgent to be solved through identity politics.

Citizens must examine what politicians promise, determine whether those promises are realistic and hold elected officials accountable after they assume office. Accountability, therefore, should not end on election day. It should begin there.

The larger message emerging from the lecture was that the rule of law cannot survive through government action alone. It requires functioning institutions, leaders who obey the laws they administer, judges who understand the human consequences of their decisions, lawyers who recognise their public responsibility and citizens who insist on their rights.

It also requires a society that refuses to excuse injustice simply because the victim is poor, politically powerless or socially disconnected.

When justice is denied, the consequences are not confined to the individual victim. The widow who loses her home is affected. Her children are affected. The community is affected. Confidence in government is affected. The legitimacy of institutions is affected. Eventually, democracy itself is affected.

At the heart of the Anthony Cardinal Okogie Foundation’s intervention was also the recognition that building a just society requires investment in people.

The Chairman of the Foundation’s Board of Trustees, Peter Amangbo, said the organisation was committed to sustaining Cardinal Anthony Olubunmi Okogie’s legacy through education, human empowerment and social welfare. He disclosed that the foundation spent N80 million on school-fee payments in 2026 and appealed to corporate organisations, philanthropists and business leaders to support its scholarship programmes.

Education, empowerment and social protection can reduce the vulnerabilities that often leave citizens unable to defend their rights. The foundation’s work, therefore, sits within the broader question of what it means to build a society in which people are given the tools to participate fully.

The challenge, therefore, is not simply to create more laws. It is to create a culture in which laws are respected, institutions are trusted, leaders are accountable and ordinary citizens can feel the protection of the state.

That is the Nigeria envisioned a country where nobody is above the law, where leadership is understood as service, where justice is accessible to the vulnerable, and where the rule of law is not merely something written in the constitution but something ordinary Nigerians can see, experience and trust.