A Performance Appraisal of the Judiciary and the Nigerian Democracy

The judiciary is the third arm of government in Nigeria that has the constitutional and legal responsibilities of interpretation of laws. The judiciary is seen as the last hope of the common man, the bulwark of the people's liberty, the upholder of the rule of law and the defender of the rights of the people. This paper utilized the secondary sources of data which involved the use of such material as textbooks, journal articles, news papers, magazine, judicial conferences and periodicals amongst others, to examine the challenges encountered by the Nigerian judiciary in a democracy. The Marxist theory was adopted to enhance our understanding of the problem under study. The theory is significant to this research because the judiciary with its mandate is required by the capitalist to enforce unequal distribution of social and material rewards in order to preserve their position to oppress the less privileged class in the society. The paper found out that the judiciary is saddled with so many challenges in the discharge of its duties and in the administration of justice in Nigeria, which ranges from appointment of unqualified judges, indirect interference of die executive in the judiciary, corruption on the part of the judges, bad police and so on. In conclusion and as a way of recommendation, the study recommends that appointment of judges by the judiciary should be based on merit and various punishments and sanctions should be awarded to erring judges.