Former Attorney-General of the Federation and Minister of Justice, Mohammed Adoke, has warned that Nigeria’s growing dependence on the courts to settle electoral disputes is gradually undermining democracy and weakening the power of voters in deciding election outcomes.
Adoke made the remarks on Wednesday in Abuja while delivering the keynote address at the 2026 annual law week of the Nigerian Bar Association (NBA) Federal Capital Territory (FCT) branch, themed “Safeguarding Nigeria’s democratic process”.
The former AGF said Nigeria’s electoral process has become overly “judicialised”, with politicians increasingly turning to the courts instead of relying on the electorate to determine winners.
“The increasing reliance on the courts to determine electoral outcomes is concerning,” he said.
He referenced former President Goodluck Jonathan’s recent concerns over the judiciary’s increasing involvement in election matters.
“Recently, former President Goodluck Ebele Jonathan, GCFR, expressed significant concerns about the judiciary’s heavy involvement in Nigeria’s electoral disputes, arguing that ‘the ballot paper, rather than the court, should determine winners’,” Adoke said.
“I couldn’t agree more with him. Nigeria’s electoral circles are preceded and followed by a litany of cases to determine whether a candidate was duly nominated or has been duly elected.
“Consequently, the electorate’s participation in determining their choices for the relevant political offices is gradually eroding.
“The phrase ‘go to court’ has become a silent reminder to the electorate that judges and courts determine who is actually nominated and/or elected.
“While judicial review is essential, excessive reliance on the courts to determine election outcomes risks undermining electoral legitimacy.”
Adoke acknowledged that Nigeria has sustained democratic governance since 1999 but argued that the credibility of the electoral process continues to decline.
“Democracy in Nigeria has endured since 1999. That, in itself, is no small achievement,” he said.
“But let us be honest: endurance is not the same as excellence, and continuity is not the same as credibility.
“A democracy is not measured merely by how often it holds elections but by how deeply its people trust the outcomes of those elections.”
He cautioned that democracy weakens gradually when public confidence in elections disappears.
“Because when the process loses credibility, democracy does not collapse overnight; it erodes. Slowly. Quietly. Almost imperceptibly. Until one day, participation becomes routine, but belief has already left the room,” he stated.
The former AGF also said the 2023 elections deepened public distrust in the democratic system, citing violence, voter apathy and controversies surrounding the conduct of the polls.
Adoke further criticised political parties for weakening internal democracy through candidate imposition and the excessive monetisation of politics.
He noted that the high cost of nomination forms has made political participation difficult for many Nigerians.
“On average, the expression of interest and nominations forms announced by political parties for the 2027 general elections range from N5 to N100 million,” he said.
He also warned that despite the removal of indirect primaries from the Electoral Act 2026, political parties are now replacing the process with the “coronation” of candidates through consensus arrangements.
“Care should be taken not to replace them with the ‘coronation’ of candidates through the instrumentality of the consensus arrangement,” he said.
Adoke urged the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) to work towards restoring public confidence in the electoral process.
“A situation where the credibility of the electoral management body is called into question (rightly or wrongly), as is the case today, does not augur well for Nigeria’s democratic process,” he said.
“INEC must be manifestly seen by the electorate and the political parties it regulates as operationally independent.
“Its decisions and actions must not give the impression that it aligns with other vested interests in the political process.”
He also called on Nigerians to protect democratic institutions and reject ethnic, religious and financial considerations during elections.
“The electorate must be alive to their responsibilities of determining who governs them,” he said.
“The point is that considerations such as stomach infrastructure, the candidate’s religion, ethnic base, etc. should not play a significant role in the election of candidates.”
According to him, democracy cannot survive where institutions become weak or compromised.
“If INEC is weak, if the judiciary is compromised, if the legislature is silent, then democracy is rendered bare,” he said.
“Democracy is not preserved by constitutions alone, nor by INEC, nor by the courts. It is preserved by a people who refuse to let it die.”