Abstract
The judiciary in Nigeria is gradually diminishing in reputation and integrity owing to so many factors one of which is regular interference. These interferences had significantly whittled the powers of the judiciary in the estimation of the public. Currently, public perception on the judiciary is that judges can be easily bribed and that the courts cannot be relied upon for impeccable judgments. This perception is owing to the antecedent of the judiciary. This article identified various aspects through which the institutional independence of the judiciary is undermined in Nigeria. It among others considered judicial forum shopping, corruption, nepotism in the exercise of appointive powers of judicial officers and administrative staff of courts, impunity especially of the political class, political interference, refusal to obey court orders, intimidation of judicial officers amongst others as responsible poor public perception of the judiciary. It is in a bid to highlight the grave challenges posed by a weak judicial system that this article is written. This article thus, presented an indebt analysis of the idea behind the formulation of the Constitutional guarantee of the ‘independence of the judiciary’ and considers the extent of its applicability in Nigeria. It emphasis the need for the continuous application of the constitutional principle in Nigeria devoid of extraneous considerations and underscored the dangers of undermining this principle. In addition to the various areas of the violation of the principle, this article also presented potential aspects of the violation of judicial independence in Nigeria. It found the major violators to judicial independence in Nigeria to include politicians, judges, judicial administrative staff, senior lawyers and other judicial stakeholders. Lastly, this article recommended amongst others that persons who undermined judicial independence while in office should be made to forfeit their pension rights or other retirement benefits to the federal or state government concerned. This in the opinion of this article will enhance the practice of the independence of the judiciary in Nigeria.