THE NIGERIAN LEGAL SYSTEM AND ITS NEED FOR REVIEW IN LIGHT OF THE NATURAL LAW THEORY: AN APPRAISAL

Abstract

The clamour for a more functional justice delivery system in Nigeria has been among one of the concerns of Nigerians in what seems like a failed system in the fourth Republic. To be candid, the judicial system in Nigeria has been bugged with corruption and inconsistencies lately that the people have lost faith in it. This paper scrutinizes the current legal framework in the country using the principles of Natural law drawing from Thomas Aquinas and some other proponents of the theory. Methodologically this paper is critical and phenomenological in that it assesses the Nigerian situation from its particular historico-cultural milieu with the view of ascertaining the main causes of the problem and why the principles of the natural law serves as a most plausible framework for restructuring the system for effective justice delivery. This paper argues that the legal framework adopted from the British common law had down the years streamlined legal practices and decisions to procedural scrutiny more than it provides room for moral scrutiny, and the in-dept normative assessments which was typical of the justice delivery system in the pre-colonial era. Thus, the ‘legal and judicial processes’ become strategically manipulated to favour the more privileged elite and political class to the detriment of the marginalized and the poor, whose right to justice are most times denied. It is the position of this paper, therefore that the Nigerian legal system should be restructured to accommodate the natural law principles which do not just serve as moral guide to the judicial process, but also censors the integrity of judicial officers during the course of justice delivery.