Falana: Judiciary Now Serves the Elite, Not the Common Man
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Human rights lawyer and Senior Advocate of Nigeria (SAN), Femi Falana, has expressed concern that Nigeria’s judiciary has drifted away from serving the interests of ordinary citizens, claiming it now primarily benefits the elite.
Falana made the remark on Wednesday while speaking with journalists after a visit to Abia State Governor, Alex Otti. He called for urgent and radical reforms in the judicial system to make justice more accessible to the common man.
“The judiciary is no longer the last hope of the common man but of the elite,” Falana lamented. “People make the mistake of saying the judiciary is the last hope of the common man — the common man has no means to go to court.”
He criticized the sluggish pace of the courts, noting that the slow dispensation of justice has become a major obstacle to fairness and accountability in Nigeria’s legal system.
According to him, while political cases are often expedited due to constitutional deadlines, ordinary civil and criminal cases suffer years — sometimes decades — of delay before resolution.
“Only the elite’s cases move in court because political cases are time-bound,” Falana said. “Other cases, for me, must also be time-bound if we want the poor to truly benefit from justice.”
The senior lawyer urged authorities to implement strict disciplinary and administrative measures to ensure efficiency within the judiciary, stressing that access to justice should not be determined by wealth or status.
