The Director General of the Centre for Credible Leadership and Citizens Awareness (CCLCA), Gabriel Nwambu, has urged the judiciary to check the rising trend of issuing frivolous and conflicting court orders, warning that the practice poses grave danger to the nation’s democracy.
Nwambu, in a statement issued in Abuja on Wednesday, said Nigeria’s democracy is “standing at a precipice,” adding that judicial recklessness in handling political disputes is fast eroding public trust and undermining the opposition political parties’ ability to perform their constitutional roles.
“Decades of internal conflict—be it insurgency, banditry, or terrorism—have fractured the social contract, while the very foundation of our political system, a vibrant opposition, is crumbling before our eyes,” Nwambu stated.
He lamented that the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP), the country’s leading opposition, is being “systematically dismantled” not by external aggression but by internal decay, and exacerbated by a judicial system that appears to have traded justice for political expediency.
According to him, the current spate of conflicting court rulings on intra-party matters has thrown the opposition into disarray and created “a climate of chaos, uncertainty, and perpetual instability,” thereby threatening Nigeria’s democratic balance.
Nwambu emphasised that a functional democracy depends on the vibrancy of its opposition, which he described as “the institutional watchdog that keeps the government in check.”
He warned that the wave of defections from the PDP, including governors and federal lawmakers, is a direct consequence of judicial inconsistency and endless litigations that have rendered the party’s leadership ineffective.
“When party leadership is factionalised and perpetually subjected to conflicting judicial pronouncements, the platform becomes unstable, pushing members to defect to the ruling party and weakening democratic oversight,” he said.
The CCLCA boss identified “forum shopping” and “judicial indulgence” as twin evils eroding the sanctity of the judicial process.
“Political actors now travel the length of the country shopping for judges willing to grant ex parte orders on matters that should either be resolved internally or by superior courts,” Nwambu lamented.
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He added that the issuance of conflicting judgments by courts of coordinate jurisdiction “is a professional embarrassment that strikes at the heart of the rule of law,” stressing that it undermines public confidence and fuels political instability.
Nwambu called on the chief justice and the National Judicial Council (NJC) to urgently probe and sanction errant judges found culpable in issuing frivolous or politically motivated orders.
“This is not an attack on judicial independence; it is a defence of judicial integrity,” he said.
“Only decisive sanctions can restore public confidence and deter the use of the bench for political manipulation.”
He also urged superior courts, especially the Supreme Court, to reaffirm the non-justiciability of internal party affairs, except where there is a clear breach of the constitution or the Electoral Act.
To stem prolonged litigations, Nwambu called for expedited hearing of political disputes, arguing that “the protracted nature of court cases allows chaos to persist, benefiting those seeking to destroy the opposition from within.”
The activist stressed that Nigeria’s security and democratic stability are intertwined, noting that “when citizens lose faith in democratic institutions, insecurity worsens.”
He appealed to the judiciary to take bold disciplinary action to restore the integrity of the judicial process and help in saving Nigeria’s democracy.
Nwambu also called on the international community to impose visa bans on individuals and families involved in anti-democratic practices, saying such measures would serve as an effective deterrent to those sabotaging the democratic process.
