Twelve ordinary citizens: The missing safeguard weakening Nigeria’s judiciary

    Hani Okoroafor | Insights | Dec 02, 2025    
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The United Kingdom’s renewed national debate on whether its jury-trial system requires sweeping reform has reopened one of the fundamental questions of modern jurisprudence: should the fate of an accused person rest in the hands of ordinary citizens or trained judicial officers alone? While Britain wrestles with the refinement of a centuries-old democratic institution, Nigeria faces a more existential dilemma. Having abolished jury trials in the 1960s, Nigeria now operates a fully judge-driven system, one that has, over time, become synonymous with delay, inconsistency, and public distrust. The contrast between the two systems is telling. The UK asks how to update an old safeguard; Nigeria has long functioned without one and is paying an institutional price that is becoming impossible to ignore.

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